Because of historical development of its flora and the influences of different ecological factors, Serbia is characterized by the high level of specious and genetic diversity in medicinal plants. According to Sarić (Sarić, 1989), 700 species of our flora have medicinal features which is 19.65% of the total flora, and in official medicine 400 plant species are used, that represents 57% of the total number of medicinal plants; 279 medicinal plants or 70% of these are put into trade.
Under an apparent increase in negative antropogenic influence onto the natural habitats, caused either by the changing of the purpose of habitats or by uncontrolled exploitation which often exceeded the capacity of the habitats a lot of medicinal species have become threatened. The most threatened medicinal species have been conserved as natural rarities and they are forbidden to be harvested. As for the rare medicinal species or the ones that grow at delicate habitats or at declining ones, and for that reason are being conserved or should be conserved, the harvesting and trade of them is limited or forbidden in the current year depending on the state of the population in nature.
The territory of Serbia is one of the important centers of medicinal plants. A lot of mountainous parts, canyons and gorges could be distinguished as very significant areas of medicinal plants. Lowlands are significant, as well. A special attention is paid to the plants with endemic and relict features and to species that have been listed for the national Red Data Book or for the Red List.
The geographic position, geomorphological, geological and pedological diversity, as well as influences of various climates, have caused the richness of genetically, species and ecosystem diversity, resulting in Serbia, a part of Balkan Peninsula, being one of the most important centers of biodiversity among the 158 centers of biodiversity in the world.
Almost all the floristic regions of Western Holarctic have been represented in Serbia, so this unique situation in Europe. When phytogeographical regions are considered, Serbia includes parts of Illyrian, Moesian and Scardo-Pindian Province of Middle-European Region, as well as the Pannonian Province of Pontian-south-Siberian Region. The highest peaks of the mountains are representatives of the Alpine-high-Nordean region.
That is the cause of immense floristic richness. So far, on the territory of Serbia, 3562 taxa of vascular flora were determined, including both species and lower systematic units (Stevanović et al., 1995). This number includes plants used in medicine, which are represented in Serbian flora by more than 700 species (Sarić, 1989), that is 19.65% of all Serbian flora. Until now, about 420 species of plants used in medicine were officially recognized as such, representing 11.8% of our flora. 279 Species of aromatic and medically used plants are represented in trade.
The Serbian territory is one of the more important centers of medically used plants. Especially important is to note those aromatic plants and plants used in medical purposes that are also of endemic and/or relic character, that is, their distribution ranges include only territories of Serbia and/or Balkan Peninsula.
As these plants have been used for ages both in official and folk medicine, many species experienced a significant decline in numbers, and many are threatened now. This point toward the need to legally regulate their protection, collecting, use and trade. Some of these species are completely legally protected (12 species), while in the same time the collecting, use and trade of others is controlled (129 species). A number of species is included in international contracts and conventions (CITES, CBD, FFH). Especially vulnerable plants used in medical purposes are those extremely threatened, such as relics and endemites found only on the territories of Serbia and Balkan Peninsula. These species are either completely forbidden to take from nature, or quantity and areas of collecting are kept on low levels. When plants are protected in their natural habitats, that is "in situ" protection, while they can also be protected ex situ, being grown in plantations.
Legal matter of nature protection in Republic of Serbia is determined by Law on Environment Protection and it aims to preserve the biological diversity through protection of threatened and economically vulnerable species. Through ordinances and orders in nature protection, the first step is made toward the protection of endangered species and their genofond, protection of economically important species from over-use, as well as the complete protection of species.
In the area of protection of nature, the threatened plant species have been protected through the Order on Protection of Natural Rarities, proposed by the Serbian Government ("Sl. glasnik RS", br. 50/93). The species protected on the territory of Republic of Serbia as natural rarities are of special importance and therefore are under the First degree of protection, including ban on their use and/or destroying and undertaking any other activity that may pose a threat on natural rarities and their habitats. According to Article Two of the Order, "... it is forbidden to destroy the specimens of protected plant species and their development stadium, through picking, collecting, cutting or pulling from the roots, to threat or destroy their habitats...". Among the species protected as natural rarities is a number of species used in medical purposes: Lycopodium clavatum, Acer heldreichii, Acorus calamus, Adonis vernalis, Drosera rotundifolia, Helichrysum arenarium, Menyanthes trifoliata, Orchis militaris, Pinus mugo, Prunus laurocerasus, Ruta graveolens, Veratrum album. These species have following degrees of being endangered: "endangered species - E, vulnerable species - V" (according to IUCN categories of endangered species from 1991).
Through the Order on control of use and trade of wild plant and animal species, the Ministry of Protection of Environment (Sl. glasnik RS, 50/93, 16/96 and 17/99) has determined the plant species whose collecting, use and trade were put under control, while the means of gathering and processing data on collected species was also determined. The collecting has to be done in approved quantities and in the ways that provide preservation of plants' population, structure and stability of plant communities in the area of collecting, so that there is no danger of threat to infinite survival of protected species. The Order's list includes 229 plant species (Achillea clypeolata, Agrimonia eupatoria, Anemone hepatica, Angelica archangelica, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, Atropa belladonna, Carlina acaulis, Centaurium umbellatum, Colchicum autumnale, Digitalis ambigua, Digitalis ferruginea, Digitalis lanata, Digitalis laevigata, Fragaria vesca, Gentiana asclepiadea, Gentiana cruciata, Gentiana punctata, Gentiana lutea ssp. lutea, Geum urbanum, Hyoscyamus niger, Hypericum barbatum, Hypericum perforatum, Hyssopus officinalis, Inula helenium, Juniperus communis, Mellissa officinalis, Origanum vulgare, Potentilla erecta, Primula elatior, Primula veris, Pulmonaria officinalis, Saponaria officinalis, Satureja montana, Teucrium montanum, Vaccinium myrtilus, Valeriana officinalis, Veratrum nigrum, Verbascum densiflorum etc.).
In order to preserve the genofond of Serbia, the Institute for Nature Protection of Serbia has made the Action Plan of Preservation of Biodiversity of Serbia, which also gives an estimation of current status of most endangered species and communities of plants, as well as suggested protection measurements. The most endangered species used for medical purposes, which are listed, are: Drosera rotundifolia, Gentiana punctata, Gentiana lutea, Prunus laurocerasus, Acer heldreichii and Pinus mugo (Butorac et al., 1995).
A number of plants used in medical purposes and found in trade has a limited distribution in Serbia, and due to use in official and folk medicine some of them are threatened now. Therefore, there may be a need to limit their collecting and maybe even a need to completely ban their use on the territory of Serbia. As some species may be numerous on several localities and in the same time they may have a limited distribution, they have been placed on the Red List of Flora of Serbia (the part of Red Book of Flora of Serbia), and according to the IUCN categories, in the group of Rare species (R - rare). These species are: Arctostaphylos uva ursi L,Gentiana punctata L., Salvia officinalis L., Gypsophila paniculata L., Hyssopus officinalis L., Gentiana lutea L. The last mentioned species became endangered on the territory of Serbia, and is also considered to be the endangered species of Europe (Anex D, EU 1997). The subspecies Gentiana lutea ssp. symphiandra is legally protected in the Order.
Especially important are the species which are included in Red Book of Flora of Serbia 1 - exterminated and critically endangered taxa (Stevanović, V., 1999): Cnitus benedictus L., Helichrysum arenarium DC., Prunus laurocerasus L.
There is also a number of species used for medical purposes, which are widely used but not protected legally, although they are on the Red List. These species are: Achillea clavenae L., Achillea lingulata W.K., Castanea sativa Mill., Daphne alpina L., Daphne blagayana Freyer., Juglans regia L. - walnut.
Some of these plants are Tertiary relics or relics of Ice Ages. The endemic species is Aconitum nappelus.
Members of Orchid family (Orchidaceae) are also protected by CITES. It is forbidden to trade specimens, parts or derivatives of these species, except for seeds and pollen, nursery plants or tissue cultures from "in vitro", and cut flowers manufactured in such a culture.
As plants used in medical purposes and their native habitats are getting ever more endangered, they can not be detached from basic endangerness even after the legal measurements were taken. Therefore, a Strategy of Protection of Plants used in Medical Purposes in Serbia was made (Amidžić et al., 1999).
Getting to know the nature and intensity of factors threatening the plants used in medical purposes will contribute to weakening and finally removal of such factors. The threatening factors are best considered multiple:
changing of conditions within the habitat - wood cleansing and timbering, afforesting open areas, plowing, draining of peat bogs and fens, that is, the change of areas' purposes due to urban and industrial development;
development of tourism that is in disparity with ecological capacities of natural environment and ecosystem, especially in vulnerable high-mountain places;
destructive collecting of rare and endangered plant species in commercial purposes;
uncontrolled and unauthorized collecting of plants used in medical purposes from their natural habitats in order to use them in pharmacy, cosmetic and chemical industry, as well as in industry of food and beverages.
Different kinds of pollution directly or indirectly lead to the change in quantitative and qualitative content of flora. These kinds are nitrification of natural forest and meadow ecosystems, extensive livestock raising in hilly-mountain and high-mountain areas, leading to the negative anthropozoogenous selection of plant world.
In order to efficiently protect the plants used in medical purposes, it is necessary:
to protect the phytocenoses where these endangered species show up;
to limit and control the collecting of the plants used in medical purposes;
to establish the inspection on several levels: over the collectors, over the purchase stations, over the trade and over the export; to make a plan of activities on monitoring the status of high-mountain plants used in medical purposes, which use and trade will be regulated by law. That law will include: the establishing of a monitoring system on the natural populations, the determination of current status of these plants and the use of metodological means of following the quantitative and qualitative changes of population structures in the areas where intensive collecting is done and on the protected natural goods, making of evidentions and book keeping on all subjects involved in use;
to breed the endangered plants used in medical purposes directly in their natural habitats, by planting the prepaired seed, if possibly taken from the same area, or through the vegetative reproduction; to reintroduce the endangered species into the protected areas and/or remote and unaccessable localities;
to breed the most endangered and the most demanded high-mountain plants used in medical purposes, and to find out ways of their successful breeding, as well as to investigate the possibilities of overcoming the technology of reproduction and breeding;
to substitute through artificial breeding, plantations and artificial propagation, as well as through other methods of in vitro cultures, in order to save the natural populations.
In order to preserve the species and genetically diversity, the natural rarities and species from the Red List and the Red Book of Flora of Serbia may be used and traded exclusively through specimens gathered through plantation breeding or tissue culture. For such a thing, a certificate is needed and the most endangered species with medical use should be bred.
Besides the protection of species themselves, it is necessary to protect the areas and identify the centers for plants used in medical purposes as parts of the net of Important Plant Areas (IPAs). The protection can be in the habitat itself (in situ) or outside the habitat (ex situ).
The important prerequisite for maintaining the species diversity of plants used in medical purposes on their natural habitats is more massive orientation toward the plantation breeding of most endangered and farmacologically most valuable species.
Butorac B. (1995): Akcioni plan očuvanja i unapređenja biodiverziteta Republike Srbije. Zavod za zaštitu prirode Srbije, Beograd.
Amidžić L., Dražić S., Kostić M., Maksimivić S., Mandić R., Menković N., Panjković B., Popov V., Radanović D., Roki Đ., Sekulović D., Stepanović D., Tasić S. (1999): Strategija zaštite lekovitog bilja u Srbiji. Ministarstvo zaštite životne sredine Republike Srbije.
Sarić M., ed. (1989): Lekovite biljke SR Srbije. SANU, posebna izdanja, 65, Beograd.
Stevanović V. (!995): Diverzitet vaskularne flore Jugoslavije sa pregledom vrsta od međunarodnog značaja.183 - 217. Bidiverzitet Jugoslavije. Ekolibri, Beograd.
Uredba o zaštiti prirodnih retkosti, Sl. galasnik RS, br. 50/93.
Naredba o stavljanju pod kontrolu korišćenja i porometa divljih biljnih i životinjskih vrsta (Sl. glasnik RS, 50/93, 16/96 i 17/99).