THIS WILD PLANT IS USED AS FODDER IN SOME ISLANDS.

Researchers from the Instituto Canario de Investigaciones Agrarias, ICIA, study, in collaboration with other research centres in Spain, the medicinal use of the bituminous Bituminaria, popularly known in the Islands as Tedera.

As has been demonstrated, This plant can be used for the treatment of the rejection of transplants of organs and bone marrow, among other therapeutic uses.

The work carried out to date have revealed that this species, traditionally used in the archipelago as fodder, contains psoralens, a class of compounds belonging to the Group of the furanocoumarins, synthesized in laboratory it possess a drug use, being used, together with UV light, to treat several diseases such as vitiligo skin, psoriasis and mycosis fungoides.

This project, which began in 2010 and will conclude at the end of year, It aims to detect plant material with high content of these substances, given its pharmacological interest, to maximize production in different clones of Tedera, in order to facilitate the processes of extraction and pure products for medical use that allow lowering the cost of current treatments have.

The Islands, being a region with a high plant biodiversity has been the selected place the ICIA scientists develop an important work of prospecting in field, It consists of collecting seeds in natural populations, its planting and subsequent drying and crushing plant, that it is submitted to the Group of plant biotechnology and Phytochemistry of the University of Murcia (UMU), responsible for extracting the furanocoumarins that trials are conducted in the laboratory at the Hospital Virgen de la Arrixaca (Murcia).

On the other hand, Instituto Murciano de research and development in agriculture and food (IMIDE) It is responsible for developing clones of this material, with most of these compounds. It also collaborates in the project the University of Alicante (UA).

In addition to the common species- present in the Mediterranean basin and Macaronesia -, presenting unique features in the Canary Islands, There are two endemic varieties of bituminous Bituminaria in Canary Islands, one in Lanzarote and the other in Tenerife, in the areas of summits (Vilaflor - Las Cañadas)

At the beginning of the 1990s began in the Canary Islands studies on this wild species, also known as stinking clover out of the archipelago, oriented to optimize its use as fodder.

Currently, Canary varieties of Tedera are being used by Australian researchers to achieve a genetically improved species, with the participation of researchers of the ICIA, that also you collaborate with other national and international teams in studies to promote its potential for forage use.