Medicinal Plants, Institute of

(full name the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Medicinal Plants; before 1969, the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants), the leading scientific research establishment in the USSR in the field of medicinal horticulture, engaged in the study of the raw materials of wild medicinal plants and in the search for and creation of new medicinal preparations.

Founded in 1931, the Institute of Medicinal Plants is in the Leninskii Raion of Moscow Oblast. It has specialized botanical, horticultural, phytochemical, and medical and biological scientific research laboratories and divisions, as well as eight experimental stations and centers in various geographic zones of the USSR. The institute also has a botanical garden of medicinal plants, an experimental production plant, and large-scale experimental farms.

Work at the institute is devoted primarily to searching for new medicinal plants in the USSR and foreign countries; studying the chemical, pharmacological, and chemotherapeutic properties of plants and the biologically active substances they yield; working out means of manufacturing medicinal preparations; introducing to cultivation promising species of medicinal plants; improving the agronomical methods and mechanization of the laborious processes of cultivating medicinal crops; and developing new varieties and primary commercial seed-growing. The Institute of Medicinal Plants has produced many preparations that are used in medical practice. The institute has a resident and correspondence graduate program, and publishes Trudy (since 1932) and Sbornik nauchnykh rabot (since 1970).