[Status of wild resource of medicine plant Lamiophlomis rotata and its problems in sustainable use].
OBJECTIVE
Lamiophlomis rotata is a common wild herb in Tibetan traditional medicine with important medicinal and economic value. The paper examines the wild distributions, exploitation regime, and situations.


METHODS
A variety of research methods, such as literature survey, specimens inspection, market information collection in major Chinese herbal markets, questionnaire of herbalists and employers of local governments and institutions, and field quadrat survey and AcrGIS as well, have been used for this work.


RESULTS
Total stock of wild resources of L. rotata is ranging from 3 713.49 tons to 6 896.56 tons (2 519-3 314 t in Qinghai, 490-1 414 t in Gansu, 641-1 167 t in Sichuan, and 422-999 t in Tibet, respectively), acceptable harvest quantity of the herb is ranging from 908-1 675 t per year, and actual harvest quantity is 2 520 t annually far beyond the acceptable harvest quantity.


CONCLUSIONS
Harvesting quantity of L. rotata is far more than that of acceptable, suggesting that utilization pattern of this wild resource plant is unsustainable. L. rotata seems to act as an indicating plant of degraded ecosystem of high-altitude grassland, shrub grassland, and wetland, and distributes in those degraded and degrading plateau ecosystems, and the plant is facing with pressure of ecological protection and wild resource population degradation. Wild population monitoring and standard cultivation are of importance for although they are far from implementation due to shortage of related basic studies.
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.
Hui
H
Sun
Shun-Yuan
SY
Jiang
Cheng-Qiang
CQ
Feng
Yi
Y
Zhou
Yi
Y
Gong
Ling-Yun
LY
Wan
Zhi
Z
Li
D002681:China; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D019686:Lamiaceae / Q000254:growth & development*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000254:growth & development*