The production chain with natural products has three major parts to consider. The
fi rst is agricultural, followed by, for example, extraction to get a concentrated
raw extract, and in pharmaceutical applications (not with cosmetics and nutraceuticals) a fi nal purifi cation step is necessary in order to get an ultrapure product
To highlight the importance of including the complete production chain, we
can consider growing a crop of plants containing oleanoic acid. This is found in
several plants (almond hulls, privet, rosemary, thyme, clove, lavender, olive, hawthorn, periwinkle etc.) with a content less than 1% in dry mass. Higher values
were observed only with a different kind of sage. The value varies with location
and local climate (e.g., Germany versus Greece), types of soil (sandy, thus irrigation needed), distance between the growing rows and cultivar. With the latter,
higher content is with plants from scions obtained through vegetative reproduction ( Salvia offi cinalis ) compared with those from sowing ( S. lavendulifolia ).
However, planting with scions is very labor - intensive, which has quite an impact
in respect to labor costs, and sowing is then the alternative. Optimal conditions
for sage are with warm and wind - protected sites, with a light soil containing
compost and water. Dry periods are no major problem and the plants should
grow in rows (distance 25 – 50 cm) as depicted in Figure 1.7 [15] . Usually, the
useful life is four to fi ve years and for soil recovery a four - year interval is recommended. If the plants are used to gain pharmaceutical extracts, all cultivation steps
(sowing, manuring etc.) must be documented and with pest management any
pesticide (date, dosage etc.) must be registered. With sage the use of herbicides is
forbidden and two cuts per year are recommended

a neoclerodane diterpenoid, isolated from the Mexican hallucinogenic plant Salvia divinorum, is a potent kappa-opioid receptor agonist. Its biosynthetic route was studied by NMR and HR-ESI-MS analysis of the products of the incorporation of [1-13C]-glucose, [Me-13C]-methionine, and [1-13C; 3,4-2H2]-1-deoxy-d-xylulose into its structure. While the use of cuttings and direct-stem injection were unsuccessful, incorporation of 13C into salvinorin A was achieved using in vitro sterile culture of microshoots. NMR spectroscopic analysis of salvinorin A (2.7 mg) isolated from 200 microshoots grown in the presence of [1-13C]-glucose established that this pharmacologically important diterpene is biosynthesized via the 1-deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate pathway, instead of the classic mevalonic acid pathway. This was confirmed further in plants grown in the presence of [1-13C; 3,4-2H2]-1-deoxy-d-xylulose. In addition, analysis of salvinorin A produced by plants grown in the presence of [Me-13C]-methionine indicates that methylation of the C-4 carboxyl group is catalyzed by a type III S-adenosyl-l-methionine-dependent O-methyltransferase.

Crop Production and Management Agriculture is the science, which mainly deals with the diverse processes or the methods used for the cultivating different varieties of plants and livestock farming or animal husbandry on the basis of human requirements. When plants of the same variety are cultivated on a large scale, they are called crops.