ABSTRACT:
The project entitled `Sustainable capitalization of medicinal herbs and hop with obtaining of bioactive concoctions` as, as objective for Partner 3 (UTCN) the design and implementation of a harvester for French and English marigold.
The construction of a harvester-device for Calendula officinalis and Tagetes patula was proposed and is presented. The prototype development took into consideration the following aspects of medicinal plants of interest: length of plant, flower width, average distance between plants (0.20-0.30 m Calendula officinalis and 0.25-0.30 m Tagetes patula). A constructive testing was performed in order to choose the best constructive solution taking into account the following aspects: efficacy of flowers harvester, quality of flowers (number of integral flowers recuperated from a stem), device mass, energetic input per recuperated flowers, facile manipulation. According to the result of constructive testing, the harvester device was developed and tested in field. Good performances were obtained for Calendula officinalis (a ratio of flowers recuperation of 70-80%) and satisfactory for Tagetes patula (a ratio of flowers recuperation of 60-70%).
