Dr. Petra Ratajc from Slovenia

Biologist, researcher and educator. Lecture is specialised on herbal distillates and other extractions of plants.

Graduate of University of Ljubljana where she specialized on quality evaluating of local herbs and essential oils. In her work she emphasizes herbs and aromatic plants and secondary plant metabolites. She accentuates safety, effectiveness and pharmacology of essential oils and plant products.

Petra regularly presents, writes reviews and carries research of home applications of essential oils. She cooperates with herbalists and aromatherapists all over the world. In the year 2017 she started blog The PhytoVolatilome, where she presents plants in wider context and shares independent specialized information.

Ingrid Kleindienst-John

Ingrid was born in 1949 in Vienna and now living in the South of Lower Austria in a small house with her beloved garden and her husband.

Since the year 2000 she owns the Aromaexperten-Institute and, since 2014, the KräuterKraftKreis, where she is teaching aromatherapy and about healing plants. Ingrid is member of the board of the Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Aromatherapie und Aromapflege (ÖGwA).

She has been writing 8 books about aromatherapy, hydrosols and healing plants and their usage.

doc. Ing. Stanislav Sekretár, PhD 

Assistant professor Ing. Stanislav Sekretár, PhD from Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava presents thesis of resistance to oxidation of plant oils and possibilities how to influence it by virtue of plant extracts.

Assistant professor Ing. Stanislav Sekretár, PhD works on Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Institute of Food Science and Nutrition, Department of Food Technology. In his search he specializes on utilization of herbal matters in food industry, cosmetics and pharmaceutics. He published more than 150 papers in scientific journals and collected papers. He is an author of one patent, writer of textbooks and study books, computer programs and audio-visual lectures. He cooperates on Slovak and international grants. His work acquired 357 of scientific citations.

Ing. Helena Pluháčková, PhD 

Ing. Helena Pluháčková, PhD. works on Mendel University in Brno. She engages in the study of medical, spice and aromatic plants.

On the conference she presents lecture concerned of milk thistle which is the most frequently cultivated medical plant in our country. Previously she studied also chamomile (variety Bohemia), substance content of hop and other medical plants. She is co-author of utility model of creme for protection of cow udders with plant extracts content against mastitis. Her pedagogical concern is growing of medical, spice and aromatic plants. Another concern is growing and processing of spices. She underwent series of foreign internships.