An assessment of consumer demand for medicinal plants: A case of Istanbul

Non-wood forest products (NWFPs) are collected or harvested for commercial and medical purposes from forests. These plants can be diversified into wild food plants, medicinal and aromatic plants, bulbous plants, mushrooms, dye plants and honey. The aim of this study is to assess the demand of consumers who buy medicinal plants in Istanbul and to reveal the relationships between the variables affecting the demand. For this purpose, face-to-face interviews were conducted with consumers (n=384) who purchased medicinal plants in 20 randomly selected districts of Istanbul. Descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and Chi-square independence test were used in data analysis. These analyses were carried out with the SPSS 22.0 statistical package program. According to the results, the most demanded medicinal plants are linden, mint and ginger, respectively. People buy medicinal plants mostly for the treatment of respiratory system and digestive system diseases and the demand is generally high in winter and autumn. The most important factor affecting the purchasing preferences of consumers is freshness. The consumers mostly buy the medicinal plants from herbalists. According to the Chi-square analysis findings, there is a significant relationship between the gender of consumers and the purpose of using medicinal plants. In addition, while there was no relationship between gender and price, brand, quality, there was a statistically significant relationship between expiration date and visuality.