Economic importance and GIS mapping of medicinal plants in Iran: A Case study of Darkesh

Abstract

Iran with a wide diversity of wild medicinal plants (8,000 Medicinal plants) is increasingly becoming a valuable source of household income for many rural people. We showed that economic potential of the wild medicinal plant and their contribution to the local people's livelihoods. This study identified the economic importance of medicinal plants and evaluated with Geographical Information System (GIS) tool to develop spatial maps covering medicinal plants prevalent in Darkesh area, Northern Khorasan, Iran. Then provide the coordinates of the identified area as your results. 10 medicinal plants belonging to 4 families were collected and its geographical distribution is illustrated in the GIS map. More than 50 species were collected and 10 species being the most frequently collected in this area. Most plants were collected in the form of whole plant. It was estimated that at least 18.000 USD are being annually traded in study area, the 10 species most frequently collected contributing most of the retail value. Results from this study indicate that the collection of certain medicinal plants could be increased livelihood for edge community of natural resources. Also, the geographical location of medicinal plants facilitates easy access of medicinal plant's natural habitat and would help to find out potential of medicinal plants in the study area. @JASEM http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jasem.v20i3.19 Wild plants are also vitally important in supporting livelihoods for millions of people around the world. World trade volume of medicinal plants is more than 43 billion dollars and has been predicted to reach to 5 trillion dollars in 2050. The financial circulation of this trade has raise up to 100 billion dollars and about 25% of the world pharmaceutical market in 1996, worth approximately 250 billion dollars is allocated to drugs derived from plants. Iran's share of this market is about 60 million dollars (Noorhosseini Niyaki et al., 2011). An estimated 50,000-70,000 medicinal and aromatic plant species are also harvested from the wild for ornamental purposes providing an important source of income for rural communities. The flora of Iran contains more than 8000 species and 1100 species are used in traditional Iranian medicine. Since only 54 species were cultivated in the country, it appears more than 95% of plants used in Iran are from the wild. Iran produced 89960 Tons medicinal plants and exported 2588 tons with exports income of 8052 thousand US $. (Ghahreman, 1974; Namsa et al., 2011; Sabzian, 2008; WHO, 2001). Rural population (31.9% of total population) in Iran was 23 million as of 2013. FAO (1999) estimated that 40% of rural families in Iran live in poverty, relying on medicinal plants collection for their livelihood. Medicinal plants can provide a significant source of income for rural people in Iran especially through the sale of wild-harvested material which contributes 10% to the total income of poorer households in the northeastern part of Iran. Darkesh is one of the most important geographic regions in Iran because of there are 140 medicinal plants that serve all kind of medicinal and economic purposes (collect over … tones of medicinal plants, valued at over us $13.000) and the several villages (3000 people) live in this region have relied on medicinal plants for livelihoods. Darkesh's wealth of medicinal plants species have been used in traditional system for economic. The most important of which are Ziziphoraspina-christi (L.) Willd (kakuti-e kuhi), Stachys (poulk, golearghavan) and Knorring (sonbol-e biabani). It is therefore imperative to recognize the economic importance of medicinal plants and this study will help raise the awareness on medicinal plants as an important natural resource. Our objectives were to determine the economic medicinal plants are collected in Dareksh (the volumes and prices collected) and to produce the spatial distribution map of medicinal plants. Observation showed that four medicinal plants species being collected are regarded as vulnerable under IUCN red list criteria.