Investigation Of Medicinal Plant Resource In Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County

Based on the information collection, extensive field investigation, interview survey and herbarium work, the medicinal plant resource of Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County (MPSHMAC)is analyzed on large scale from four aspects, i.e. constitution of the medicinal plant resource, property and flavor of medicinal part, poisonous plants and investigation of wild key medicinal plants, aiming to find the way to sustainably develop and utilize the medicinal plant resource in the county. Sorting the medicinal plants of Maonan nationality in common use and evaluating the rare and endangered medicinal plants provide the basis of sustainable development for the county which should put forward protective measures in time. The main conclusions are summarized as followings:1. Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County, locating at low attitudes with warm weather and abundant rainfall and having the mid-subtropical karst forest ecosystem and the mid-subtropical typical evergreen broad leaf forest ecosystem, accommodates large plant species diversity, including lots of medicinal plant species. The MPSHMAC in total comprises1439vascular medicinal species (including infraspecies taxa) belonging to789genera of219families, including1317wild medicinal species in690genera of166families and cultured medicinal species122in99genera of53families,154medicinal pteridophyte species belonging to79genera of41families,18medicinal gymnosperm species belonging to12genera of7families,1077medicinal dicotyledon species belonging to576genera of143families and190medicinal monocotyledon species belonging to122genera of28families.2. Amongst MPSHMAC, the dominant families with11medicinal species or more are: Compositae, Papilionaceae, Rubiaceae, Orchidaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Rosaceae, Labiatae, Moraceae, Liliaceae, Polypodiaceae, Urticaceae, Myrsinaceae, Verbenaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Poaceae, Ranunculaceae, Rutaceae, Solanaceae, Polygonaceae, Asclepiadaceae, Lauraceae, Rhamnaceae, Pteridaceae, Umbelliferae, Scrophulariaceae, Cyperaceae, Gesneriaceae, Celastraceae, Apocynaceae,Commelinaceae, Amaranthaceae, Caesalpiniaceae, Araceae, Thelypteridaceae, Dryopteridaceae, Cruciferae, Melastomataceae, Vitaceae, Araliaceae, Oleaceae, Primulaceae, adding up to901(11.5%of total medicinal flora) species. The genera with the range of1to10medicinal species contain1351(93.88%of total flora) species belonging to783(99.24%of total genera) genera, are the main part of MPSHMAC, indicating the high generic diversity of medicinal plants in the county.3. This investigation is more comprehensive comparing with the third national investigation of Chinese materia medica resource in Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County, adding562new medicinal species belonging to228genera of52families (131.14%of former total families,140.64%of former total genera,164.08%of former total species), furthermore supporting the importance of this investigation.4. There are125wild key medicinal species belonging to112genera of70families in MPSHMAC, but only32species belonging to37genera of37families occur in the quadrat investigation, with the rest found along investigation route. The reasons of the rest not occurring in the quadrat are probably due to:1) the small number of medicinal plants;2) specific habitat of medicinal plants;3) the habitat of medicinal plants not being included in the representative region;4) quadrat investigation and medicinal plants growth period not coinciding because of short growing season. And the yearly trading volume outnumber1,000kg including Drynaria roosii, Fallopia multiflora and Stemona japonica.5. The cultured medicinal plants of MPSHMAC with122species belonging to99genera of53families are mainly used for food and ornamental, respectively including60species belonging to43genera of22families such as Cucurbitaceae, Fabaceae, Cruciferae and33species belonging to30genera of23families. But only one species, Euconnia-ulmoides is used for medicine.6. Herb and shrub medicinal plants are predominant (1072species and74.49%of the total medicinal species) among MPSHMAC, majority of which are used with the medicinal part of the entire plant or root and stem (1214species and84.37%of total medicinal species), demonstrating that the death of medicinal plants go against sustainable utilization.7. The MPSHMAC can be sorted by property and flavor respectively as follows:233species belonging to178genera of93families with cold property,325species belonging to241genera of108families with cool property,261species belonging to182genera of94families with warm property,5species belonging to5genera of5families with hot property, and332species belonging to243genera of112families with mild property.211species belonging to169genera of91families with bitter,141species belonging to113genera of65families with sweet,128species belonging to102genera of67families with pungent taste,27species belonging to27genera of22families with bland taste,19species belonging to15genera of13families with sour,17species belonging to17genera of15families with pucker taste,1species belonging to1genera of1family with salty taste. And the rest all have2flavors. 8. The poisonous medicinal plants are rich in the MPSHMAC with145species belonging to123genera of86families, including8species belonging to8genera of8families with strong toxicity,50species belonging to38genera of28families with moderate toxicity and87species belonging to77genera of87families with mild toxicity.9. The fresh medicinal herbs directly used by native doctors for immediate treatment without any refinement come from167species belonging to142genera of families, including9pteridophyte medicinal species belonging to9genera of9families,1gymnosperm species belonging to1genera of1families,132dicotyledon medicinal species belonging to111genera of58families,25monocotyledon medicinal species belonging to21genera of12families.10. The medicinal plants in Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County are endemic to Guangxi including11species with the component of9dicotyledon species belonging to9genera of9families and only2monocotyledon species. Based on IUCN (3.1edition),66species belonging to43genera of19families (4.59%of total species) had been recorded as wild rare and endangered medicinal plants. Whereas, after extensive field investigations for the status of more medicinal plant species, it is suggested that additional97species should also be listed in the Checklist of Medicinal Plant Protection of the county.