The calcareous soils of the high mountain glades and plateaus of Montenegro is the home of yellow gentian Gentiana lutea spp. simphyandra, the root of which has long been valued as a bitter tonic. Gentiana lutea is one important medicinal plant that has become threatened in Montenegro and throughout its range in mountainous regions of Europe due relative scarcity to over-harvest. The export of the root is now banned from Montenegro. Now former traders in gentian root are keenly interested in its conservation. When traveling in mountain villages and among seasonal shepherds, they stop and ask that when cutting hay, mostly done with a scythe in the traditional way, that the flowering gentian plants not be cut, so that they may produce seed. Attention to simple conservation measures, such as this has resulted in an increase in gentian, where it had once disappeared. Veselin Vucinic is the “King of Gentian” in Montenegro due to his conservation efforts. (See 14 December 2006 blog below, “A Visit with Veselin Vucinic”). That’s Veselin in the picture above, and his daughter, Ms. Gordana Vucinic, with a group of Gentian in the photo below.

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Each year in northeastern Montenegro in Plav, a beautiful mountain city located on the shores of Plav, lake the annual Blueberry Festival is held, celebrating the harvest season of this native wild fruit. “Blueberry” as it’s known locally in Montenegro is Vaccinium myrtillus traded in world markets under the common name “bilberry.” A small shrub with sweet black berries, it grows in heaths and woods of northern Europe and mountains of southern and central Europe. An ancient food plant of Europe, bilberry emerged as a medicinal herb in the twelfth century, mentioned by the German Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, and later in the sixteenth century herbal of Hieronymus Bock, who gave extensive detail of the plant’s medicinal properties. During the Second World War, pilots in the British Royal Air Force reported improved night vision after eating bilberry jam. In the 1960s, these reports led Italian and French scientists to research the berries for their effects on vision problems. Bilberry fruits (dried, powdered, and extracts) are sold in the form of dietary supplements in the United States, perceived useful for increasing venous circulation, particularly to the eyes, thus benefiting eyesight. In Germany it is an approved phytomedicine for the treatment of nonspecific acute diarrhea and as a local therapy for mild inflammation of the mucous membranes of the mouth and throat. Preparations of bilberry fruit are used to enhance poor microcirculation, thus improving eye conditions such as night blindness and diabetic retinopathy. Pigments called anthocyanosides help regenerate a pigment in the retina that is essential for the eye to adapt to light. The dried leaves are also used as a beverage tea ingredient and have been the subject of research, particularly in Italy, for potential antidiabetic activity. The fruits are also known for strong antioxidant activity due to anthocyanins in the fruit, which help to strengthen and protect blood capillaries and stimulate the formation of new ones. Bilberry jam and juice products are widely available in markets in Montenegro.