Crop wild relatives of spices, medicinal and aromatic plants: What can they offer?

Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) form an important source of economic traits like tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, which are hardly present in the crop germplasm. An attempt to prioritize the Indian CWR of important spices, medicinal and aromatic crops based on the overall closeness of wild taxa with the crop and their usefulness in crop breeding resulted in the prioritization of 84 CWR taxa in 18 spices and 104 in 25 Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (M&APs). Thirty-seven cultivated species (out of 47) have their wild forms/weedy populations distributed in India. Only a handful of CWR taxa have been known for their potential use in crop improvement and rootstock value, although many more species might possess much-demanded traits. There has been considerable success in the utilization of relatives of black pepper, vanilla, Myristica and Garcinia crops. Although many wild species of Zingiber and Curcuma occur in India, a general lack of biosystematic and screening studies and or nil or negligible seed-setting in these crops limit the transfer of useful traits from CWR. In the case of M&APs, ample potential does exist in utilizing all wild species belonging to the genera Cymbopogon, Mentha, and Ocimum as they are relatively closer to the crops, and reports of interspecific hybridization are available. In this communication, reasons behind the poor utilization of CWR taxa and issues and future strategies related to their germplasm management are discussed.