Medicinal-Cosmetic Potential of the Local Endemic Plants of Crete (Greece), Northern Morocco and Tunisia: Priorities for Conservation and Sustainable Exploitation of Neglected and Underutilized Phytogenetic Resources

Abstract

Medicinal-aromatic plants (MAPs) are important sources for the development of new valuable products of interest to human and animal health, and are also used as ornamentals for the horticulture industry. However, the increased global demand and the uncontrolled exploitation of these plants constitute a threat to their sustainability. To date, few scientific investigations have focused on MAPs valorization and their domestication. The purpose of this study was to evaluate for the first time the medicinal-cosmetic potential of 399 local endemic Mediterranean plants confined to Crete (223 taxa), the Mediterranean coast-Rif of Morocco (94), and Tunisia (82). The new methodological scheme was developed by experts through three multidisciplinary co-creative workshops and was adjusted by end-users to point-scoring of nine attributes evaluating the potential of the targeted neglected and underutilized plants (NUPs) in the medicinal-cosmetic sector. The results were demonstrated as percentage of the maximum possible score. These assessments were further linked and discussed with respect to feasibility and readiness timescale evaluations for sustainable exploitation of the focal NUPs. A great diversity of local endemic NUPs (30 taxa, 11 families) were associated with interesting medicinal-cosmetic properties (>35% up to 94.44%). Among them, 8 taxa showed the highest medicinal-cosmetic potential (>55% of maximum possible score), half of which are threatened with extinction. Although ex-situ conservation efforts and applied research work are needed to safeguard and unlock the full potential of the local endemic NUPs evaluated herein, the proposed multifaceted evaluation scheme revealed that some local endemic NUPs of the studied regions can be sustainably exploited in short- or medium-term, following successful examples of Cretan NUPs e.g., Origanum dictramnus. The sustainable exploitation of high scored taxa of the studied regions can be fastened through targeted species-specific research bridging extant research gaps and facilitating conservation and stakeholder attraction.

Keywords: biodiversity; ethnobotany; methodological scheme; phytochemistry; phytomedicine; traditional uses.

Figure 1

Graph of hierarchical clustering of medicinal-cosmetic attributes (complete linkage, 1-Pearson r distance) based on the score values of the 223 local endemic plants of Crete (A), 94 local endemic taxa of Mediterranean coast-Rif of Morocco (B), and 82 local endemic taxa of Tunisia (C).

Figure 1

Graph of hierarchical clustering of medicinal-cosmetic attributes (complete linkage, 1-Pearson r distance) based on the score values of the 223 local endemic plants of Crete (A), 94 local endemic taxa of Mediterranean coast-Rif of Morocco (B), and 82 local endemic taxa of Tunisia (C).

Figure 2

Evaluation example of Origanum dictamnus (Cretan endemic) scored for nine medicinal-cosmetic attributes reaching 94.44% of the optimum possible score. This example is hierarchically ranked in the highest class (>70%) among 399 studied taxa. For attributes and scoring, see Table 1.

Figure 3

Evaluation example of Centaurium eythraea subsp. bifrons (north Moroccan endemic) scored for nine medicinal-cosmetic attributes reaching 72.2% of the optimum possible score. This example is hierarchically ranked in the above-average to high class. For attributes and scoring, see Table 1.

Figure 4

Evaluation example of Teucrium alopecurus (Tunisian endemic) scored for nine medicinal-cosmetic attributes, reaching 57.4% of the optimum possible score. This example is hierarchically ranked in the above-average to high class. For attributes and scoring, see Table 1.

Figure 5

Top-evaluated local endemic plants of Crete (Greece) threatened with extinction with strong medicinal potential: (A) Origanum dictamnus in its wild habitat on Mt. Psiloritis (left) with strongly pubescent leaves (middle) and arachnoid indumentum (left) (Photo: T. Schizas, reproduced with permission); (B) Flowering shoots of Sideritis syriaca subsp. syriaca (left) with distant inflorescence verticillasters (middle) of bilabiate flowers (corollas with brown stripes on upper lip, right); (C) Origanum microphyllum shoots with small leaves at the beginning of flowering (left), partial inflorescence verticillasters (Photo: A. Papastergiopoulos, reproduced with permission) and appearance with comparatively larger leaves at the end of flowering.

Figure 6

Top-evaluated local endemic plants of Rif-Mediterranean coast of Morocco with interesting medicinal potential: (A,B): Centaurium erythraea subsp. bifrons plants in wild habitat (A) with impressive inflorescence (B); (C–F): Origanum elongatum in its wild habitat (C), and flowering shoots (D), inflorescence (verticillasters) (E), and bilabiate corolla (F) of collected sample; (G–I): Abies marocana Trab. individuals (G), typical cones (H), and winged seeds (I).

Figure 6

Top-evaluated local endemic plants of Rif-Mediterranean coast of Morocco with interesting medicinal potential: (A,B): Centaurium erythraea subsp. bifrons plants in wild habitat (A) with impressive inflorescence (B); (C–F): Origanum elongatum in its wild habitat (C), and flowering shoots (D), inflorescence (verticillasters) (E), and bilabiate corolla (F) of collected sample; (G–I): Abies marocana Trab. individuals (G), typical cones (H), and winged seeds (I).

Figure 7

Top-evaluated local endemic plants of Tunisia with strong medicinal-cosmetic potential: (A) Flowering shoots with inflorescences (verticillasters) of Teucrium alopecurus and taxon’s habit (B); (C) Wild-growing plant individual of Artemisia campestris subsp. cinerea.