The taxonomy, morphology and breeding of clary sage (review)

The clary sage has the highest content of essential oil in the genus Salvia L. in comparison with the other species of sage. The most important characteristic of the sage essential oil is the content of 1.0-1.5 % of sclareol in it, which allows replacing of amber and musk by it in luxury perfumery. Morphologically, the clary sage is a biennial or perennial potent plant, often capable of forming flowering stems with large inflorescences in the first year of vegetation. The greatest amount of essential oil (up to 0.25-0.30 %) is contained in the inflorescences. Therefore the emphasis of clary sage breeding lays on the increasing of number of flowering stems with large-flowered inflorescences. The breeding of sage to increase linalyl acetate and linalool is equally important. The main features of selection in sage breeding are the biological cycle of development, the growth season, the shape of the bush, the number and size of inflorescences in the bush, resistance to pests and diseases, essential oil content. The breeding of clary sage for the southern regions of Russia is usually aimed at breeding of biennial varieties, including fruit-bearing in the first year of life. The scheme of breeding process includes germplasm nursery, breeding nursery, control nursery, preliminary and competitive variety trials. The germplasm of clary sage can be created using the methods of intraspecific hybridization or mutagenesis. The presence in the gene pool of sage of sterile forms with male sterility allows conducting heterosis breeding. In 2009, in the Voznesensky branch of VNIIMK, a new high-yielding variety of clary sage Tatiana was created, it has essential oil content of up to 0.35 % and the yield of essential oil of up to 32.4 kg/ha. The variety of clary sage Tatiana has high pharmacological qualities and is promising for creation of medical preparations on its basis.