During the summer, I had the opportunity to visit the Balkan Peninsula and to find more about medicinial herbs, especially those ones that grow in Serbia. Thanks to the support of the Faculty of Agronomy in Cacak and my mentor, Dusko Brkovic, we have visited a few locations, but the most interesting was certainly Rtanj mountain.
Rtanj is a mountain known by its legendary nature, a specific smell of the air and mystery which each year attracts more and more tourists, scientists, and people from all over the world. After visiting the mountain, people have a feeling that there is some kind of mystery and some of them even claim that a endemic plant, so called “Rtanj tea” has got a power to cure even the hardest diseases. Rtanj is well known because of the plants that grow only in this area and all of them are protected by law.
One of the most popular plants here is definitely “Rtanj tea” (Saturea Montana) that contains many benefits. While we were on Rtanj, we had a chance to visit a local “shaman” who has been collecting and selling herbs. He has shown us the plants he collects and the way he dries them.
