The exploitation of medicinal plants of the Mediterranean area.

For a better study of the great number of species constituting the medicinal plants of the Mediterranean area, ethnobotanical maps are actually being produced by the Italian Botanical Society. The following points are raised: (1) the study of the ancient books of Materia Medica of the various countries which preserve, better than anywhere else, the true traditions; these have, in part, been passed on to the modern pharmacopoeias; (2) the importance of the determination of the species of medicinal plants; (3) the different uses of a plant in different countries; (4) the importance of taxonomy and chemotaxonomy for more precise studies of the species containing active principles. Conservation of species must be one of the primary objectives at present, and therefore the formation of "germ plasma" banks for the main medicinal plants in order to preserve their genetical patrimonies is suggested.