The Aninei Mountains are characterised, as well as the entire area of the Banat, by a remarkable floristic diversity. Among medicinal species that are highly abundant and frequent in the area and present on almost all grasslands, the species of the genus Thymus. These species are easy to identify after both their morphological aspect and their characteristic aromatic smell, being harvested and used by the inhabitants in the area for both cooking uses and as infusion in respiratory diseases. Of the total 17 species present in Romanian flora, 8 can be found in the studied area.(Flora României – Ciocârlan V., 2009) The most frequent one are: Th. glabrescens Willd., Th. pannonicus All. and Th. pulegioides L. Though the vegetal product used in phyto-therapy is found as Serpylli herba, in which enter different species of the genus, in the present paper we have analysed more thoroughly one of the most frequent species of the genus, with a view to establish the quality of the harvestable vegetal material and of grouping it within admitted standards. The working method is based, in the field stage, species identification starting from botanical determiners (Flora României - vol. III (1961), Flora României – Ciocârlan V. (2009) and Flora Europaea (http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/FE/fe.html). The product we have analysed was harvested at the optimal time and then shadow dried. Later it was analysed in the laboratories of the SC Fares Laboratory Bio Vital in Orăştie, one of the most important producers and traders of medicinal plants – from both spontaneous and cultivated flora – on the Romanian market. Taking into account the large number of both legally and illegally commercialised ecological products on the market, we hope to support the inhabitants in the rural area, that are directly interested in valorising species of the Thymus genus. As a result of the analysis of the volatile oil content we can recommend or not the product to be valorised or not. The authors thank the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth, and Sport which, through the National Council of Scientific Research in Higher Education, has financed the present study as part of the research project PN II IDEI nr. contract 1077/2009, project code ID-865. The topic of the project is ,,Identifying medicinal and aromatic plants from the Aninei Mountains with a view to valorisation’’.

medicinal and aromatic plants; Thymus glabrescens; thymol; Aninei Mountains

Presentation: oral