INVESTIGATION AND STUDY ON THE RESOURCES OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN HUBEI PROVINCE

There are 2,818 species (including subspecies, varieties and forma) of medicinal plants belong to 194 families and 977 genera in Hubei. They make up 67 per cent of the total number of the plants in Hubei. Among them, there are 544 species of crude drugs, 2,226 species of medicinal herbs and 48 species of plants which were confused with the other crude drugs in using. According to the natural conditions, the vegetation types and the distribution characteristics,we divide Hubei into two zones (northern and middle subtropics) and six regions of medicinal plants. This paper reports the main new recorded plants of each region, and discusses the protection, exploitation and utilization of the medicinal plants.