Natural Resources of Medicinal Plants: Estimation of Reserves on Example of Rhaponticum Carthamoides

摘要

Wild medicinal plants often become the source of advanced materials for the manufacture of effective medicines. The long-term use of their natural resources depends on observance of biologically based rules, i.e. the annual possible volume of harvesting. The paper aims to estimate the reserves of subsurface parts of the valuable medicinal plant Rhaponticum carthamoides in the Kuznetsk Alatau (Siberia, Russia). We set 31 resource profiles with total length of 41895 m in key areas and mapped locations of plant communities with R. carthamoides. Based on data in 2000 calculating plots we defined the average number of shoots per 1 m2 in the phytocenoses with great abundance of this species and estimated the average weight of subsurface parts per shoot in 43 special key plots. Predictable exploitable reserves of R. carthamoides in the Kuznetsk Alatau amount 202 t with 6.73 t of annual possible volume of harvesting. The demand for raw materials of this species can be satisfied by natural resources but only if harvesting is held in a sustainable manner observing also the rules of collection on the population level.