A Growing National Sector; Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

The culture of "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food", aimed at bringing medicinal and aromatic plants to our health, has made significant contributions to Turkish-Islamic scholars from Farabi to Burini. It is mentioned in the important work of Ibn Sina, one of the most contributing scientists, in his important work "El-Kanun fi't-Tıb", in which he used 785 types of medicinal plants. It is the 14-volume medical encyclopedia of Avicenna, also known as “El-Kanun fi't-Tıb” or “Avicenna” in the West. Ibn Sina's natural medicine books have been used as a source in Orthodox Medical schools (Europe) for hundreds of years. Turkey is one of the rare countries with a historical culture of medicinal and aromatic plants via silk-spice, and it is one of our important natural products, the use of which has increased rapidly from past to present. In recent years, "Traditional and Complementary Medicine Practices" have shown a very rapid development trend in the world. Especially among these applications, "Phytotherapy (protecting health with plants and supporting and completing existing treatments)" has begun to attract attention as the medical application that finds the most application areas and produces results. One of the strengths of our country is that we have been using many of the plant quinines used in phytotherapy, one of these complementary medicine practices, as "Folk Medicines" as part of our traditions and culture for centuries.
In this process, our country has been affected by the rising trend in the world and the use of medicinal and aromatic plants in the field of phytotherapy and aroma therapy has begun to increase rapidly day by day. Almost all such medicinal herbal products are imported from abroad. A wide variety of medicinal and aromatic plants, some of which are endemic, used and traded in our country, have begun to gain strategic importance.
T.R. By organizing Phytotherapy Application certificate trainings for Physicians within the scope of "Traditional and Complementary Medicine Practices Regulation(Official Gazette dated 27 October 2014 and numbered 29158)" published by the Ministry of Health, Phytotherapy Certified Physicians are provided with health services. have started to be implemented in their systems. However, our Phytotherapy physicians have difficulty in finding standard herbal-based izefitofarm aceticure that they can use in practice. In order to fill this product gap, developing quality and sustainable products from our medicinal plants, which are our national values, has become a national responsibility of our relevant institutions, organizations and the relevant sector.
Turkey is an important biodiversity center of the world due to its climate, soil and geographical features. Turkey's plant richness in biodiversity; It is due to its different geological and topographic features, being surrounded by sea on three sides, steppe, forest, maquis, rocky, saline and microclimate in different regions. Türkiye; According to the branch of plant geography, the world is divided into 37 Flora Areas. Türkiye is the meeting point of 3 different Flora areas. These are: Iran-Turan, Mediterranean and European-Siberian Flora Areas. It is very rare for three separate areas to meet in an area like Turkey, which covers a very small part of the world. As a result of all these ecosystems, it is a fact that our country has the character of a small continent in terms of biodiversity. In addition, in its historical development, Anatolia was located on migration routes and hosted many civilizations; It has played an important role in increasing plant diversity and richness and enriching genetic resources.
It is a known fact that the gene center of many cultivated plants cultivated in the world today is Anatolian lands. Although there are different figures in various sources regarding the number of plant species in our country, Turkey has a richness close to the entire European continent with over 12,000 plant species in its flora. This wealth of ours is better understood when compared to the European continent, which is 15 times larger than Turkey. In addition, the endemism rate of around 30% in our flora (approximately 4,000 species) makes our country an important gene center. Medicinal plants have an important place among the plant genetic resources of our country.
In recent years, despite Turkey's rich biodiversity and numerous medicinal plant species in its natural flora, it is still a supplier of cheap raw materials in the world. It is known that in our country, most of the medicinal and aromatic plants are collected from nature unconsciously/uncontrolledly, without production, and used and traded for medicine, food, cosmetics, paint and similar purposes, damaging genetic resources. It is known that there are approximately 500 medicinal and aromatic plant species traded in domestic and foreign markets, and 30% of them are traded abroad. One of the most striking issues is that, in recent years, Turkey's foreign trade revenue from the raw and semi-processed products of all medicinal and aromatic plants has been around 1 billion dollars, while the high value-added products, especially pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, are based on imported medicinal and aromatic plants. It is understood from different sector analyzes that it has reached a potential of over $5 billion paid for a wide range of products. However, our country is one of the countries with a very high production potential for the pharmaceutical and food sectors, especially value-added extras developed from medicinal plants at the standards demanded by the international market.
Considering the strategic features of our country's flora, such as its ecological characteristics, biodiversity and high endemic rate; The data to be obtained as a result of studies on similar products, many of which we import, and the collaborations between our country's relevant institutions, organizations, non-governmental organizations and the private sector are of importance. In order to turn the advantages we have as Turkey into opportunities in international markets, the production of standardized and sustainable raw materials with increased added value based on medicinal plants is of great importance.
By increasing the product variety of medicinal and aromatic plants endemic to our country and producing quality products in accordance with the desired standards, the targeted level can be achieved in foreign markets and the produced herbal products can be used not only as raw plants but also as extracts, fixed/essential oils, hydrosols, etc. by increasing their added value. When it can be processed and marketed into products and final products such as medicine, food, cosmetics and paint, the income from these products will be higher.
In recent years, priority has been given to work on the production of standardized extracts of medicinal and aromatic plants that we import from abroad, and the production of tea, medicine, cosmetics, paint, etc. with high commercial value has begun to be given priority. Studies on raw material extracts have come to the fore. It is one of our advantageous regions in terms of the compliance with the active ingredients and relevant standards of the technological value-added products to be produced for the production of medicinal and aromatic plants in Hatay. Our province of Hatay has a special position in our country, especially in developing the infrastructure of the production of our national medicines/foods (functional special foods).
Priority studies are needed to bring the production of medicinal plants used in Turkey, their transformation into products, standardization and quality management to the health and other sectors of our country. Collaboration in national/international projects carried out with Agriculture and Forestry, Health, Industry and Technology and many other institutions and the private sector is of great importance in terms of sustainability.
In recent years, all health professionals all over the world want the consumer to live a healthy life in the best quality possible. Offering controllable products to human beings, from production to consumption, of functional foods, medicines, paints, cosmetics, etc., which contain reliable and beneficial bioactive ingredients demanded by conscious consumers, has become an important topic in the relevant sectors at the global level, and research and development and product development studies have accelerated.
In conclusion; medical, cosmetic, food, paint etc. Due to our dependence on foreign sources for herbal products, it brings a large amount of import burden to our country. The potential of our country and Hatay region, which is very rich in terms of endemic, medicinal and aromatic plants, will be mobilized and export opportunities will be provided if finished or semi-finished products can be produced from these plants. The first phase of our national goals can be realized by collaborating with relevant individuals, institutions and organizations for more effective use of our training, promotion and production infrastructure to be carried out in the Hatay region. Producing medicinal and aromatic plants with economic and strategic value in Hatay ecological conditions and turning them into value-added products means getting rid of foreign dependency and opening them to foreign markets, and at the same time, guaranteeing our future. With the medicinal and aromatic projects implemented and to be implemented in Hatay; There is a national responsibility on the relevant parties.
“It means that those who produce have hope, and those who have hope have everything..”