XVI International Botanical Congess

The objectives of our study were to evaluate the status of conservation of medicinal plants from Central Chile commercialized in public markets, their pharmacological potentiality and their specific rate of regeneration after harvesting. Our studies were done in order to encourage conservation and sustainable use, by involving the local communities in the activities and in the recovery of traditional knowledge on the specific plant populations. The mechanisms of regeneration were followed through the morphological analysis of the plants, specifically renewal bud location and activity, the growth dynamics season and time of resprouting in order to determine the ability of the plants to cope with the rate of extraction by harvesters. We correlated the regeneration rates with the frequency and amount of harvesting. Plants have been selected based upon their reported medicinal uses (either from literature and/or personal interviews) and trade in local markets. Dynamics of plant regeneration were followed on tagged plants, both with and without clipping on experimental plots for long term studies. Prof. Gloria Montenegro