Current Trends for Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.) Crops and Products with Emphasis on Essential Oil Quality

Lavender is in the research spotlight due to its increasing economic importance, while market demand is expected to continue to grow. Among the hundreds of essential-oil-bearing plants, Lavandula angustifolia Mill. remains one of the most valuable. This paper explores the lavender chain timeline from crop to products, examining the expanding knowledge on the characteristics, phytochemical profile and functional potential of lavender that could lead to new products and uses. Lavender crops can be expanded without competing for productive land, instead using marginal, contaminated or unproductive land. A novel cultivation trend proposes leveraging agri-background biodiversity, arbuscular mycorrhiza and the natural enemies of pests for healthy crops. Together with breeding efforts targeting highly performant genotypes with complex volatile profiles coupled with resistance to specific biotic (particularly Phytoplasma) and abiotic (salt, heavy metals) stressors, industry could have a steady supply of high-quality raw material. Besides the expansion of the uses of essential oil in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food and environmental and agri-applications, novel channels have appeared for the use of the solid by-product, which is rich in polyphenols and polysaccharides; these channels have the potential to create additional streams of value. The stabilization and optimization of techno-functional delivery systems through the encapsulation of essential oil can extend shelf-life and enhance biological activity efficiency.

In vitro Regeneration of Hyssopus officinalis L. and Plant Genetic Similarity

Biotechnological methods are an essential component of plant genetic resources investigation that allow both to preserve a rare natural plant and useful selection genotypes, especially essential oil bearing plants used in medicine, perfume, food, etc. In the clonal micropropagation in vitro, the key moment is to retain genetic stability of in vitro material. It is considered that plant regeneration in vitro from meristem or vegetative buds gives identical clones, but the effect of the medium growth regulators on the genetic stability of in vitro plant material is discussed. Therefore, the objective of our work was to evaluate the genetic similarity of ex situ and in vitro plants. Investigation was performed on Hyssopus officinalis L. cv. Nikitskiy Beliy (NBG selection). Regeneration from the shoot single-node segments on the modified Murashige and Skoog culture medium (MS) supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) in concentration 0.3-0.9 mg/L and 0.1 mg/L Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) was carried out. It was established, that application of 0.5 mg/L BAP was sufficient for the organ formation and development without morphological deviations. Genetic analysis based on RAPD and ISSR-PCR had shown full genetic similarity of the investigated ex situ and in vitro plants.