In the period from June 26 to June 28, organized by the Institute of Forestry and the Research Society “Babin Nos”, the Third International Conference on Medicinal and Wild Edible Plants was held in Pirot. In addition to domestic participants, scientists from several other countries also took part: Croatia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, and India. Our colleague Jovan Lazarević, together with collaborators, presented the results of a study entitled: “In Vitro allelopathic effect of angelica hydrolate (Angelica archangelica L.) on soybean seed germination (Glycine hispida).”
After the official part of the conference, where a large number of papers were presented in the form of plenary, oral, and poster presentations in the amphitheater of the Primary School “Sveti Sava” in Pirot, the meeting and discussions continued the following day in the natural surroundings of the Pirot area, on Stara Planina, in the area of the village Dojkinci, at the locations “Arbinje” and the waterfall “Tri Kladenca.”
The general conclusion of this conference was that collecting medicinal plants in nature alone is not sufficient to meet the needs of an increasingly demanding market, and therefore the organized cultivation of such crops is becoming more common. Considering that crops of medicinal and aromatic plants are still not significantly represented in cropping structures, conferences like this provide an excellent opportunity for the exchange of knowledge and experience between the scientific community, producers, collectors, and end users.