Our agricultural heritage
Very little is actually known of the actual first use of the specie Dalmatian pyrehrum, (Cinerariifolium) unlike the before known Persian pyrethrum (roseum).
The island Brač's old legend says that it were the horrors of the middle-age plague that turned St. George himself to misteriously re-appear on a horse one cold bright night in 18th ct. flying above plague-torn Dalmatia and spreaded the seeds of this plant near the devastated people who were praying for the lives of their children. According to legend, those religious people gathered some seeds and cultivated the plants with whose flower power they destructed the flees (buha) that transmitted the dreaded disease and put an end to it forever in Europe. The plant was from that time named 'buhač' which in english translated is 'a flee plant' and was treasured since.
A peculiar story and coincidence, if nothing else..
This legend be true or not; realising the potential of Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium and wishing to monopolising the market, the local inhabitants started the first production in the beginning of 19th century and commercialised the flower powder by middle 19th century, with strict secret keeping of the powder origin. With the further expansion of the industry and increasing forign pressure for the revealance, the seeds were even baked by the jelous growers and even American entomologysts threaten for their lives in trying to obtain unbaked plant seeds. Since late 19th century onwards, thr production was fully carried from south (Dubrovnik area) thru middle and north coastal region up north to the island Krk in Kvarner bay. Yet, from about that time, new plantations were started in USA, France, Italy and later Africa as well as in almost all the continents in the world. The production (than in Yugoslavia) peaked in 1925. with reported 6 323 ha of plantantions yielding 2 787 000 pounds of dry flowers; data excluding wild harvesting.
Major producing countries today include Kenya, Australia, Rwanda and Tanzania.
What really caused the demise of the centuries-long tradition of growing Dalmatian chrysanthemum in its natural habitat was never fully agreed upon in Croatia. The fact that its price clashed by half immediately after adopting the Staudinger-Ružička method of assaying the pyrethrins content in 1924. is undoubtfull.
Lavoslav Ružička, ironically a Croat, conducted that investigation that led to pyrethrins discovery and isolation from 1910. to 1916. but yet didn't reveal his results until 1924.; falsely hoping to get his gain of achiving (and patenting) the pyrethrins synthesis. Dalmatian grown flowers were at the time lower in pyrethrins content than those of Japan grown becouse were relying on sturdy but unimproved cultivars and the 80 years old industry needed a total and swift upside-down reorganization. A huge growers reeducation campaign was begun, quality standardization employed and a modern institute in Split was built and equipped but the reorganization failed becouse of the approaching war. After WW2. some efforts were made again but insistence on mechanical cultvation caused growing on unnapropriate sites and therefore increased the long term costs; fungicides, herbicides, replanting, plant die-offs etc. and almost all the growing activities in Croatia ceased by 1966. The plant was back in the nature, in the wild - again.
Today, we carry a respect and a loving memory for the Dalmatian chrysantemum, a plant that enabled food, school and a living for many of our ancestors, as well as a chance of life, higher prosperity and sustainability for the whole world to appriciate.
