Demand and availability of Rhodiola rosea raw material

Rhodiola rosea L. roseroot, (Golden root or Arctic root) is a herbaceous perennial plant of the family Crassulaceae. The yellow-flowered roseroot species is a circumpolar species of cool temperate and sub-arctic areas of the northern hemisphere, including North America, Greenland, Iceland and the Altai, Tien-Shan, Himalaya mountains in Asia. The European distribution includes Scandinavia and most of the mountains of Central Europe. Roseroot has traditionally been used in Russia and Mongolia for the treatment of long-term illness and weakness caused by infection. Rhodiola radix and rhizome is a multipurpose medicinal herb with adaptogenic properties: it increases the body’s nonspecific resistance and normalizes body functions. A special emphasis in pharmacological research has been put on roseroot in the former Soviet Union. Several clinical studies have documented roseroot’s beneficial effects on memory and learning, immuneresponse stress and cancer therapy. Rhodiola preparations have widely been used to increase the stress tolerance of the cosmonauts. Salidroside and its precursor tyrosol, and cinnamic glycosides (rosin, rosavin and rosarin) have been identified from the roots and rhizome. Other important constituents are flavonoids, tannins and gallic acid and its esters (Brown et al. 2002). Based on the documented pharmacological effects and its safe use, the commercial interest for roseroot-based products has quickly increased worldwide. Presently one of the biggest problems is to meet the raw-material requirement for the growing industrial demand. Nearly all raw material originates from the natural populations. The largest populations are situated in the Altai area of South Siberia. Due to the intensive collection, natural populations are severely threatened. Roseroot is on the Russian Red List and its collection is nowadays strongly regulated. The collecting activities in the European countries have less economical importance, because collection and transport costs are high in the mountain areas. Roseroot cultivation seems to be the only solution to produce raw material in sufficient quantities for industrial purposes. Cultivation experiments have been carried out in several parts of the former Soviet Union, Poland and Sweden. Due to national industrial interest, domestication experiments were carried out also in Finland in 1994 - 2002. The first cultivation technologies for roseroot have been introduced in practice. Roseroot can be grown successfully in South Finland using organic growing methods. The dry root yields ranged between 1.5 and 3.0 ton/ha in South Finland. However, cultivation of roseroot has its own problems. The cultivation costs are high, because the field cultures have to be established by transplantation of seedlings, the cultivation period from planting to harvesting is five years long and the root harvest and post-harvest processing are labour-intensive. For the continuous supply of industrial raw material, new plantations have to be established every year. A stable financial background seems to be necessary for the growers involved in large-scale production of roseroot raw materia