Medicinal plants used by the community at Takou Nature Reserve

The field surveys in the core zone and the local farms in the buffer zone have sampled 179 collection numbers of medicinal plants, which were determined to be 163 taxa (including 03 introduced species) of 135 genera in 66 families. The sampled 160 native species, including 05 ferns and 155 higher plants, have been identified to belong to at least 65 families and 132 genera. The families with number of medicinal species above five include Fabaceae, Rubiaceae, Asteraceae, Zingiberaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Malvaceae. Ten medicinal plants listed in either the IUCN Red List (2007) or Vietnam Red List (2007) are Caesalpinia sappan L., Curculigo orchioides Gaertn, Drynaria bonii Christ., Drynaria fortunei (Kuntze ex Mett.) J.Smith, Nepenthes thorelii Lecomte, Nervilia fordii (Hance) Schlechter, Raphistemma hooperianum (Bl.) DC., Selaginella tamariscina (Beauv.) Spring, Stemona cochinchinensis Gagnep. and Stemona pierrei Gagnep. The results once again remind us of the urgent needs in conservation of both the medicinal plants and the associated indigenous knowledge and in development of ex situ conservation models of medicinal plants in order to address the actual local need and to reduce the pressure on the medicinal plant resources at Takou Nature Reserve.

Truong Anh Tho, Dinh Hoang Dung, Vu Ngoc Long, Luu Hong Truong
Institute of Tropical Biology

(Proceedings of 3rd National Scientific Conference on Ecology and Biological Resources, Hanoi 22th October 2009 - IEBR)