Medicinal and aromatic plants in Adana urban areaconsumption structure and consumer behaviors

Medicinal and aromatic plants that grow spontaneously in the flora in our country as well as in the world, are used by boiling the parts such as leaves, stems, roots, flowers, seeds and sprouts by boiling, keeping them in water, and keeping them in oil in order to meet the requirements of industry, food, tea, spice and cosmetics among the people. consumers used it by giving the essence to the oil and by mixing several plants to obtain different mixtures. Consumers use these products by collecting them from nature, growing them themselves, obtaining them from herbalists or the online platforms on internet, etc. In this research, it was aimed to determine the medicinal and aromatic plant uses, the factors affecting the used areas and the level of knowledge of the consumers in the urban area of Adana. The data within the scope of the research were collected through a consumer survey conducted with 594 people using the simple random sampling method. "Excel" and "SPSS statistical program" were utilized in the evaluation and analysis of the data collected through face-to-face surveys. By using these programs, the frequency distribution and percentages of the variables were obtained. According to the results of the research, it is observed that 56% of the consumers participating in the survey are women and 43.8% are men, 92.8% of them are over 30 years old, and 62.9% of them are primary and secondary education graduates. It is also observed that 98.7% of consumers use medicinal and aromatic plants whenever and wherever they need, 51.1% of consumers use medicinal and aromatic plants for nutrition, 47.7% use them in the field of medicine, they find the products they use useful, they mostly use them in the treatment of digestive and respiratory diseases. Keywords: Medicinal Plants, Aromatic Plants, Sipices, Alternative medicine