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Bulgaria is a relatively small country with an area of 111 000 square kilometres, but it is rich in plant diversity.
There is evidence that the total number of plants amounts to about – 7835 species.
The main reason for the richness of the Bulgarian flora, compared to other countries, are the favorable topography and soil-climatic conditions of Bulgaria.
In our flora, there are individual plant species left over from previous geological epochs, with limited distribution, which are called paleoendemics. They are well separated, unchanging, without close relatives. Such are the Siluriana (Haberlea rhodopensis), the Serbian Ramonda (Ramonda serbica), etc.
Plants that are found only in a strictly defined region of the world are called endemics. On the territory of Bulgaria their number is more than 170 species of cover plants.
Use of medicinal plants in BULGARIA
About 500-600 medicinal plants are used in folk medicine.
For the needs of the pharmaceutical industry, phytotherapy and for export, about 300 species are mostly used.
Worldwide, about 12000 species of medicinal plants are used, of the about 500000 species of vascular plants known so far or of the world flora, only 2.4% are known and used as medicinal plants.
About 750 species of the country's total of 3700 species of vascular plants or 20% of the Bulgarian flora are known and used as medicinal plants.
These data show that the number of known and used medicinal plants is not large, especially on a global scale, and at the same time highlight BULGARIA as a unique country with almost ten times better knowledge and use of medicinal plants.
Another characteristic is the wide use of our medicinal plants in Bulgarian folk medicine.
Specifically in Bulgarian folk medicine, about 500-600 medicinal plants are used.
Data from folk medicine, although empirical, reflect thousands of years of human experience.
A deserved place should be given to the richness and deep traditions of Bulgarian folk medicine.
People's belief in the healing power of herbs has been passed down through generations, found in folklore, preserved in rituals, written sources and orally transmitted advice.
Bulgarian folk medicine, and any other, can and is a starting point for in-depth scientific research, using the methods and tools of modern science.
The Bulgarian medicinal plants also show uniqueness in the chemical composition of biologically active substances to which their healing action is due. Many examples can be given.
It is enough to give an example of the unique Bulgarian rose oil, which is one of the most expensive and sought-after perfume essential oils on the international market.
Bulgarian rose oil differs in the quantitative content of the ingredients. The main component is the acyclic monoterpene alcohol citronellol and not, as in other rose oils, the alcohol geraniol.
This difference is due to the specific soil and climatic conditions that the Kazanlak rose - Rosa damascena finds in the Bulgarian sub-Balkan fields.
Dependencies between the specific Bulgarian conditions and the qualitative and quantitative composition of biologically active substances in Bulgarian plants can be pointed out many more such as: woolly spurge /Digitalis lanata/;
Tribulus terrestris; Leucojum aestivum, etc.
They call our medicinal plants "the green gold of Bulgaria" or "the green wealth of Bulgaria". This is true, but the gold and the wealth, if it is not protected, stored well and not worked to multiply, comes a day when it ends. And here we are unique, because Bulgaria is the only country in the world that has adopted and operates - "Law on Medicinal Plants".
The most important features of the Medicinal Plants Act are:
Prof. Nikolov
/Prof. Stefan Nikolov was born on August 4, 1947 in Vratsa. He graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy in 1970. For many years he was the head of the Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Botany at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Sofia, a national consultant on herbal medicines and herbs and Bulgaria's representative on the Commission on Herbal Medicinal Products of the European Medicines Agency in London.
