Organizing Committee Member
Nativ Dudai
Professor
Agricultural Research Organization
Israel
Biography
Prof. Nativ Dudai is a principal researcher and breeder in the Unit of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in the Newe Ya'ar Research Center of the Agricultural Research Organization, Israel. Prof. Dudai works on acclimation, domestication and breeding of aromatic and medicinal plants and manages a big living gene bank for this goal. One of his main scopes is development and breeding elite varieties of aromatic plants for year round production. His sweet basil cultivars are leading and renowned in the production of the fresh cut herbs, and he was the first to sequence and assembly its whole genome. His breeding concentrate also in the improvement of the health values of herbs by using classical breeding methods to manipulate their secondary metabolites content and composition. This approach has led to development novel plants and varieties for the phyto- therapy, cosmetics and food industries, such as clary sage as new source of Omega 3 oil and rosemary with very high content of carnosic acid for the natural preservative products. He is also involved in research on the bioactivity of plants and their secondary metabolites, mainly the inhibition of germination and growth of plants by essential oils and their anticancer activity.
Research Area
Aromatic and medicinal plants