Ex-situ conservation of medicinal plant genetic resources managed by national agrobiodiversity center of Korea

In South Korea, systematic seed germplasm management has begun at the Rural Development Administration (RDA) in 1985. A total 173,217 accessions of plant seed germplasm has preserved at National Agrobiodiversity Center (NAC), RDA, in 2011. Among them, RDA genebank maintains the medicinal germplasm colletion of 5,905 accessions of 390 species, comprising 374 developed varieties (6.3%), 1,267 landraces (21.5%), 742 wild relatives (12.6%), and 3,532 others (59.8%). In aspect of PGR status, landraces are dominant part of conserved accession, followed by developed varieties, wild relatives, and cultivated materials. Beside this, the medicinal germplasm is preserved in the sub-genebanks located separately in 9 administrative provinces of South Korea. The conserved accessions are 7,110 belonged to 1,216 species. Recently, characterization and evaluation of medicinal gerplasm have been activated for 3 years in NAC, which are useful to breeders and users who are interested in their exploitations of functional components or the efficacy of the respective accessions. It will promote utilization of medicinal germplasm and development of medicinal crop breeding program for both human being and sustainable agriculture in the near future.