Abstract

Mexican marigold (Tagetes minuta) (Figures 9.1 through 9.4), which is synonymous with Tagetes glandulifera or Tagetes gladulosa, belongs to the Asterales order and Asteraceae family. The Asteraceae (sunflower) family is the largest family of vascular plants, with more than 23,000 species, which are rich in secondary metabolites and essential oils. The genus contains 27 annual and 29 perennial species (Soule, 1993) from subtropical and tropical America and only 1 from tropical Africa. The genus Tagetes consists of 40 species that are endemic from Arizona to Argentina and is well known in the province of Chaco (Argentine) as “chinchilla” (Parodi, 1959). The genus name refers to the Latin name for marigold, Tages, an Etruscan god associated with agriculture; minuta means “very small” and probably refers to the very small individual flowers within the inflorescences. Mexican marigold is also known as khakhi or stink weed, Omosumo (Kisii), Abuba (Luo), Mũbangi (Kikuyu), Ngwekwe (Kibukusu), and Chemiasoriet (Kalenjin) (Ofori et al., 2013).