Quick search
Go!

AN OVERVIEW ON THE ALBANIAN MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS INDUSTRY


ELVIRA BAZINA 1, GJON FIERZA 2, MAXHUN DIDA 2, GAZMEND ZENELI 3
(1)ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT AND EXPORT MARKET SERVICES. ISMAIL QEMALI STR. 3. TIRANA. (2)GENERAL DIRECTORATE OF FOREST AND PASTURE, SAMI FRASHERI STR. 4, TIRANA, ALBANIA. (3)MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR CHEMICAL ECOLOGY. HANS-KNÖLL STR. 8, D-07745 JENA, GERMA

Issue:

SCSB, Volume XII

Section:

Volume XII - Vegetal Biology

Abstract:

Albania, part of the lush Mediterranean basin, has a very rich flora with about 3250 native vascular plant species, distributed in 165 families and about 910 genera (Paparisto et al., 1989). This number comprises about 30% of the ca. 11.600 European species. Albania offers a wide range of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants (MAPs) giving the country a competitive trade advantage. About 250 different plant species are wild harvested for medicinal and aromatic use in Albania (Vaso, 1997). The MAP biodiversity includes, to a considerable extent, indigenous species. An excellent example is Gentiana lutea which is a plant named after Illyrian King Gent; such a name was inherited over the centuries and is very popular even to date.

Local use of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants has deep roots and a long tradition in Albania in treating human diseases. It appears that at least a century ago man valued herbs as medicinal agents as noticed by the British traveller Edith Durham, who was astonished by the knowledge owned by some local people on the north Albania on the use of MAP in remedies for disease (Durham, 1910; 1923). MAPs have been an important Albanian export commodity for many years. Until the early 1990s, the purchase of cultivated or wild harvested MAPs and trade in these materials were exclusively state controlled. State organisations and authorities sold the purchased plant material to the central, state-owned “Agroexport”, which exported either the dried MAP raw material or distillations thereof (Qendro et al., 2004). Albanian MAP industry experienced significant changes during the transition towards the free market economy; originally functioning under the centralized system as an auxiliary economic sector, this industry has now become one of the weightiest components of the agricultural overall exports. Many exports are shipped to Western European countries, and a large number of private companies have taken over the formerly state-controlled trade.

Keywords:

Albania, herbs, industry, spices, trade.

Code [ID]:

SCSB200712V12S02A0003 [0002417]


Copyright (c) 1995-2007 University of Bacău