Department of Functional Crop Cultivation and Botany

Department Head: dr Marcin Praczyk

The Department of Functional Crop Cultivation and Botany conducts research, educational and implementation activities related to creating new cultivars of fibre crops and medicinal plants and their botanical identification, including morphological and biochemical characteristics. The main tasks of the department are to:

• Carry out conservation and classical cultivation of fibre crop and medicinal plant cultivars.
• Maintain a gene bank of fibre crops and medicinal plants.
• Evaluate starting materials in the culture process.
• Determine inheritance mechanisms with regard to significant functional traits in fibre crops and medicinal plants.
• Conduct research on the variability of active ingredient content in medicinal raw materials.
• Conduct research on natural medicinal plant resources.
• Conduct research in seed science and seed production regarding fibre crops and herbaceous plants.
• Grow trial crops of species uncultivated to date.
• Maintain the Medicinal Plant Garden, publish index seminum and participate in international seed exchange.
• Carry out commercial activities related to the sales of medicinal plant seeds.

Accomplishments

Major implementation accomplishments

1. On 8 March, 2023, by a decision of the director of the Research Centre for Cultivar Testing, a new cultivar of fibre flax, HERA, was added to the Polish National List of Agricultural Plant Varieties.
2. By a decision of the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO), the Institute of Natural Fibres and Medicinal Plants - National Research Institute was granted exclusive rights to the HERA cultivar covering the EU.
3. Under contracts with BONOMELLI and HERBAPOL POZNAŃ, the certified seed of the IWNiRZ camomile and milk thistle cultivars was sold.
4. As part of the marketing of the certified seed of medicinal plants, the seeds of the IWNiRZ cultivars were sold to individual farmers. The sale included 22 cultivars of 17 species. The herb varieties cultivated by the Institute account for 70% of the Polish domestic market.

Innovative activities and key solutions:

• Initiation of cultivation works with respect to new species of medicinal plants using genetic methods unused to date.
• New directions in the cultivation of native species of fibre plants taking into account the dynamics of the market and the consequences of ongoing climate change.

Under a targeted grant from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, work was undertaken on obtaining flax genotypes characterised by lower susceptibility of plants to drought. The research covered three cultivation forms, namely the fibre, oil and dual-purpose varieties.

As regards hemp, work was undertaken on obtaining dioecious varieties characterised by a high seed yield and a low growth form. Today, hemp cultivation in Poland focuses on monoecious forms. The cultivation of a dioecious variety eliminates this constraint and the expected slightly lower seed yield (typical for dioecious varieties) may be compensated for by significantly increasing the area cultivated.

Scientific achievements:

• SONATA Programme titled: “How the chemical composition of true hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) waste biomass affects its potential for use in bioproducts?” - project financed by the National Science Centre. Implementation period: 2022-2025
• LENOD Project – registration of a new fibre flax cultivar, financed under the “Innovation Incubator 4.0” programme as part of the 2014-2020 Smart Growth Operational Programme
  The Institute of Natural Fibres and Medicinal Plants - National Research Institute in Poznań was granted exclusive rights to the cultivar concerned covering the European Union.
• Targeted grant from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development