Production of medicinal plants in agroforestry systems (PA)

The medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) are a resource highly demanded at present, since to the typical uses of the medicinal and aromatic plants (in pharmacy, herbal medicine, condiments, perfumery, alcoholic beverages) were expanded between end of 1990 and early 2000 to new ones that increasingly have a greater weight in the global estimation of the use of this type of goods. This is the case of dermocosmetics, in which plant extracts appear more frequently, or the development and commercialization of beverages and functional foods that contain bioactive compounds from medicinal plants. In addition, in recent years the demand for natural products for the care of domestic animals has been intensified. Only in the United States the market volume of this type of products was one billion dollars in 2002. The figures that are reflected in the bibliography on both the total volume of plants that move in the PAM market and the money that generates this type of products worldwide are very high. The global average of imports each year exceeds 400,000 tons of medicinal and aromatic plants