International Journal of Herbal Medicine 2017; 5(5): 196-215 E-ISSN: 2321-2187 P-ISSN: 2394-0514 IJHM 2017; 5(5): 196-215 Ecological status of medicinal plants of Chalsa forest Received: 17-07-2017 Accepted: 18-08-2017 range under Jalpaiguri division, West Bengal, India Anup Kumar Sarkar Assistant Professor, Department Anup Kumar Sarkar, Manas Dey and Mallika Mazumder of Botany, Dukhulal Nibran Chandra College, Aurangabad, Murshidabad, West Bengal, Abstract India The use of Traditional plant in the treatment of disease has shown a good interest in the last few decades. Different types of human communities traditionally use such medicinal plants. As the forest regions are Manas Dey rich in medicinal plants, people collect such plants from forest vigourously. Excess harvest of such plants Assistant Teacher, Jurapani or their propagule may results the extinction of the species from the forest, which may led to the change High School, Dhupguri, in entire forest vegetation. Considering this view point in mind, a phytosociological survey has been Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India. carried out on naturally occurring medicinal plants of the Chalsa Forest Range. The present paper throws light on the description and uses of certain species of medicinally important plants along with their Mallika Mazumder ecological status in this forest. Post Graduate Student, Department of Botany, Raiganj University, Uttar Dinajpur, Keywords: Medicinal plants, Traditional knowledge, Phytosociology, Community Index, Threatened, West Bengal, India Conservation 1. Introduction Chalsa Forest Range, a Himalayan foot hill forest range, represents one of the unique biodiversity region of world which is under little but continual disturbance by biological and anthropogenic factors. It is situated in Malbazar Subdivision of district Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India. Vegetation of the forest is unique in the Nature. The forest is characterized by dense vegetation and a rich wild life. The forest range is very close to the river Jaldhaka. In addition Mithi river, Raidak river and Diana river are also very close to the forest range. Jaldhaka basin in the Chalsa region created some excellent habitats which have rich biodiversity that contains diverse assemblage of herbs, shrubs, trees, animals and microbes. The range is 535 ft from sea level. The soil is fertile in nature and strongly acidic. The o o o o temperature of this area varies from 20 C to 32 C during summer and from 8 C to 22 C during winter. Most of the area of this forest range is wet annual and humid. The forest is more or less homogenous in composition with admixed type of tree species. The forest is famous for some timber vegetation like Shorea robusta Gaertn., Lagerstromia speciosa Pers., Terminalia belerica Roxb., Chuckrasia tabularis A. Juss., Terminalia tomentosa Roth., Sterculia villosa [1] Roxb., Persea fructifera Kosterm., Beilschmiedia roxburghiana Nees., etc. However there is no reliable study on different types of non-timber plants, their habitat, ecology and phytosociology. The forest range is also a house of endemic and exotic medicinal plants. The plants having various proprieties, which are useful in our day to day life. Some are used as medicine, while some are consumed as edible nutritious vegetables or fruits. Different tribal communities belonging to the villages adjacent to such forest are dependent upon the forest resources for their day to day livelihood practice. Many of the traditional healers, Kabiraj, Bez, also collect the medicinal plants for treatment of various diseases. In the process they collect the roots, rhizomes, bulbs, flowers, bark, fruits and other medicinally important parts of the plants for extracting drugs and unused parts of the plants were left in the forest. In this way, sometimes they destroy the important medicinal plants. Present paper deals with the occurrence of valuable medicinal herbaceous and shrubby plants in the study area and their ecological and phytosociological aspects. Many of the plant species were used by people for medicinal purposeS which was documented [2] in anient literature including Charak Samhita and Sushruta Samhita . It can be stated that existence of human on planet earth depends on diverse species of plants for its medicinal and Correspondence other beneficial properties. The world health organization estimates that about 80% of the Anup Kumar Sarkar population of most developing countries relies on herbal medicines for their primary Assistant Professor, Department healthcare need. About 80% of human population in India is using herbal medicine to care of Botany, Dukhulal Nibran [3] Chandra College, Aurangabad, different kind of diseases .Different types of plants are used to cure different types of Murshidabad, West Bengal, disease. Some herbal alternatives assist prevention of the secondary complications of the India disease. ~ 196 ~ International Journal of Herbal Medicine Since medicinal plants and its derivatives continue to play a animal communities. However a little cares was taken only major role in the in medical therapy, it is of utmost for traditionally used medicinal plants. Thus, this study aims importance to conserve these resources for the sake of at assessing the species composition, diversity, mankind and future generations. For this regular ecological Phytosociological and Ecological characteristics of herbs and monitoring of such plants in any vegetation including forest shrub communities. patches is obligatory. Phytosociological evaluation of the medicinal plant species is 2. Materials and Methods very important aspect in the field of forestry as well as in 2.1 Description of Study Site other scientific studies like conservation, management and The present study has been carried out in four beat forests of bioprospecting of phytoresources. Information on changes in Chalsa Forest Range of Jalpaiguri Forest Division, West the herb and shrub layer of any forest ecosystem or natural Bengal, India, The forest beats are named as Panjhora Beat, ecosystem may be useful to assess present-day issues of Nagrakata Beat, Sipchu Beat and Kharia Bandor Beat. management relating to sustainability and biodiversity in Vegetation of the forest is unique in the world as most of its forestry and nature conservation[4].In present days the lack of plants are evergreen and semi-evergreen. It consists of lots of proper ecological knowledge can seriously hinder the floristically diverse plants, of which some of them are rare, conservation and sustainable use of non-timber plant species, endangered and threatened. The flora shows much more especially in the face of anthropogenic threats including diversity with the change in topography. The vegetation overexploitation[5].Herbs and shrubs are associated with a varies considerably with the change in altitude, soil, humidity, wide variety of organisms, and are increasingly recognized to rainfall and presence of water passages called Jhora. The play an important role in controlling food chain and topography ranges between riverine to slightly hilly. ecological stability. Such plants provide food and shelter to to Fig 1: Map of the Forest Beats of Chalsa Forest range. ~ 197 ~ International Journal of Herbal Medicine Table 1: Topographical and Climatic characteristics Organic Organic Available Total Available Available Name of the Forest beat Area(Ha) Type of Soil pH C (%) Matter (%) N (%) N (%) P205 (ppm) K20 (ppm) Panjhora Beat 2255.92 Dry 4.90 1.057 2.709 0.040 0.130 36.73 26 Nagrakata Beat 2148.85 Dry 4.75 1.715 2.955 0.043 0.145 57.39 55 Sipchu Beat 1757.58 Wet 5.12 1.571 2.906 0.035 0.135 53.35 50 Kharia Bandor 387.26 Wet 5.35 0.378 0.240 0.021 0.091 18.36 51 2.2 Field Investigation and Data Collection dominance is the height value of a species with respect to the The composition of standing shrub and herb vegetation data sum of coverage of the rest of the species in the area. of Chalsa forest range was investigated in between the January 2015 and February 2017.A total of 64 quadrates 16 in each of four forest beats were selected which were laid at 100 m interval along 1000 m long line transects having quadrate size of 20m x 20m (400 m2) following Esmailzadeh et al. We further systematically placed five 2m×2m shrub quadrates (f) Abundance: It is the study of the number of individuals of (one at the centre and the other four at the corners) to different species in the community per unit area. By quadrates investigate shrubs, and five 1m×1m herb quadrates were fixed method, samplings are made at random at several places and to the upper left corner of each shrub quadrate to investigate the number of individuals of each species was summed up for herbs in each plot. Overall 64 plots, including, 320 shrub all the quadrates divided by the total number of quadrates in quadrates and 320 herb quadrates from natural forest sites. which the species occurred. It is represented by the equation: Plant species found within each sampling plot were photographed and identified by their vernacular and scientific names using various book and internet. Knowledgeable persons of communities and traditional herbal healers were contacted and information was collected through interviews, (g) Importance Value Index: This index is used to determine observations and discussions held during field survey through the overall importance of each species in the community well prepared questionnaires. In order to analyze the diversity structure. In calculating this index, the percentage values of of vegetation Frequency, Relative frequency, density and the relative frequency, relative density and relative dominance Relative density were calculated. Importance Value Index was (Relative Height/Length) are summed up together and this calculated by adding Relative frequency Relative density and value is designated as the Importance Value Index or IVI of Relative Height [6-9]. the species. IVI= Relative Frequency + Relative Density + Relative (a) Frequency (%): This term refers to the degree of Height/Length dispersion of individual species in an area and usually expressed in terms of percentage.