Multifunctional role of medicinal and aromatic plants: perspectives and constraints.

Multifunctionality is one of the newest claims addressed to agricultural practices, that are nowadays requested to overpass their classical role to furnish food and fibers for human needs, also addressing to the fulfillment of other human necessities, such as to accomplish recreational services and to give a contribute for environmental safeguard. Medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) may be an important tool for the advancement of agricultural practice towards multifunctionality: they represent a mean for crop (and economical) diversification, contribute to land valorization by means of their aesthetical value, may fit into integrated agro-industrial pathways, may give raw matters and intermediate products dealing with a significant economical value to many productive sectors even external to agriculture. In this work we examine the role of some MAPs in the strategies for multifunctional enhancement of Mediterranean farming systems. A special emphasis is given to all those species which are native to the Mediterranean environments, focusing on the state-of-the-art of the related research and the future perspectives for such crops.