Medicinal-Cosmetic Potential of the Local Endemic Plants of Crete (Greece), Northern Morocco and Tunisia: Priorities for Conservation and Sustainable Exploitation of Neglected and Underutilized Phytogenetic Resources

Biology

Soumaya Bourgou¹  Wided Megdiche-Ksouri¹  Olfa Karous²  Zeineb Ghrabi-Gammar²  Imtinen Ben Haj Jilani²  Vasileios Greveniotis³  Ioannis Anestis⁴  Nikos Krigas⁴  Georgios Tsoktouridis⁴  Stefanos Hatzilazarou⁵  Abdelmajid Khabbach⁶  Mohamed El Haissoufi⁶  Mohamed Libiad⁶  Fatima Lamchouri⁶  Manolis Avramakis⁷ 

[1] Centre de Biotechnologie de Borj-Cédria, Laboratoire des Plantes Aromatiques et Médicinales, BP 901, Hammam-Lif 2050, Tunisia;Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie, Université de Carthage, 43 Avenue Charles Nicolle, Cité Mahrajène, Tunis 1082, Tunisia;Institute of Industrial and Forage Crops, Hellenic Agricultural Organization Demeter, 41335 Larisa, Greece;Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, Hellenic Agricultural Organization Demeter, Thermi, P.O. Box 60458, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece;Laboratory of Floriculture, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece;Laboratory of Natural Substances, Pharmacology, Environment, Modelling, Health and Quality of Life (SNAMPOPEQ), Polydisciplinary Faculty of Taza, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, B.P. 1223, Taza Gare, Taza 35000, Morocco;Natural History Museum of Crete, University of Crete, 71409 Heraklion, Greece;

关键词: biodiversity;    ethnobotany;    methodological scheme;    phytochemistry;    phytomedicine;    traditional uses;   

DOI  :  10.3390/biology10121344

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Medicinal-aromatic plants (MAPs) are important sources for the development of new valuable products of interest to human and animal health, and are also used as ornamentals for the horticulture industry. However, the increased global demand and the uncontrolled exploitation of these plants constitute a threat to their sustainability. To date, few scientific investigations have focused on MAPs valorization and their domestication. The purpose of this study was to evaluate for the first time the medicinal-cosmetic potential of 399 local endemic Mediterranean plants confined to Crete (223 taxa), the Mediterranean coast-Rif of Morocco (94), and Tunisia (82). The new methodological scheme was developed by experts through three multidisciplinary co-creative workshops and was adjusted by end-users to point-scoring of nine attributes evaluating the potential of the targeted neglected and underutilized plants (NUPs) in the medicinal-cosmetic sector. The results were demonstrated as percentage of the maximum possible score. These assessments were further linked and discussed with respect to feasibility and readiness timescale evaluations for sustainable exploitation of the focal NUPs. A great diversity of local endemic NUPs (30 taxa, 11 families) were associated with interesting medicinal-cosmetic properties (>35% up to 94.44%). Among them, 8 taxa showed the highest medicinal-cosmetic potential (>55% of maximum possible score), half of which are threatened with extinction. Although ex-situ conservation efforts and applied research work are needed to safeguard and unlock the full potential of the local endemic NUPs evaluated herein, the proposed multifaceted evaluation scheme revealed that some local endemic NUPs of the studied regions can be sustainably exploited in short- or medium-term, following successful examples of Cretan NUPs e.g., Origanum dictramnus. The sustainable exploitation of high scored taxa of the studied regions can be fastened through targeted species-specific research bridging extant research gaps and facilitating conservation and stakeholder attraction.

【 授权许可】

Unknown