Assessment of Production Potential of Medicinal Plants for Sustainable Utilization in Khao Luang Forest Park, Nakhonsawan and Uthaithani Provinces

Abstract

The purposes of the study were to assess the status and site production potential of medicinal plants, and to determine the guidelines for the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants in Khao Luang Forest Park. A field survey and questionnaire sampling were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The results showed that the plant and medicinal plant communities in Khao Luang Forest Park could be classified into three major types of forest community—namely, dry evergreen forest, mixed deciduous forest, and deciduous dipterocarp forest, which in total contained 45 species of medicinal plants. Dracaena robusta Ridl, Nervilia aragoana, and Smilax micro-china were medicinal plants with the highest IVI (Importance Value Index) values in the dry evergreen forest, mixed deciduous forest, and deciduous dipterocarp forest, respectively. The total production potential of the medicinal plants was assessed to be currently 1,459.32 tonne. In the dry evergreen forest, Ventilago denticulata Willd. had a medicinal production potential of 531,746.42 kg. Ventilago calyculata Tul. and Stemona tuberosa Lour. were the plants with the highest medicinal production potentials of 169,021.07, and 63,218.38 kg in the mixed deciduous forest and deciduous dipterocarp, respectively. The opinions of the local people on the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants showed that the abundance of medicinal plants was lower compared with the past and that wildfire had been the main destructive factor affecting the sustainable use of medicinal plants. Likewise, the local people were very concerned that the appropriate measures for the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants in the Khao Luang Forest Park could promote the area as a natural educational learning zone and for ecotourism activities. Most local people disagreed with a strict prohibition on picking medicinal plants in the forest park. However, appropriate measures such as a public participatory process for policy making and planning could minimize the conflict and distrust regarding the sustainable utilization of medicinal plants in the forest park.

Keywords: Khao Luang Forest Park, medicinal plants, production potential of medicinal plants