[Ecological protection of medicinal woody plants]

Medicinal woody plants, especially medicinal tall trees, play a same important role in forest structure, ecological balance and timber production as other tree species in forest, and due to their additional medicinal values overuse of these trees is more intensive than others. Many medicinal materials are destructively obtained from plants such as roots or bark used as medicinal materials. The contradiction between the utilization and protection of medicinal woody plants becomes more and more incisive. In the present paper, based on the analysis of the utilized situation and specialty of medicinal woody plants, the trouble between the plants protection and utilization was observed, the method to solve it and the fundamental research work needs to be developed were discussed. The following aspects of researches were suggested to be conducted: (a) study on the distribution in organs, seasonal and age variations, and correlation with environmental factors of principal medicinal compositions in mature trees to clear the optimum of harvest and cultivation conditions; (b) study on the distribution in organs, seasonal and age variations, and correlation with environmental factors of principal medicinal compositions in saplings, especially the time course of the variation in medicinal compositions and biomass to achieve the optimal tree ages for the balance between biomass and production of medicinal products during saplings development; (c) study on the influence and regulation of environmental factors on medicinal compounds production in woody plants to look for the optimal cultivated conditions for optimizing the accumulation of biomass and medicinal chemicals; (d) further study on the regulatory mechanism of the induced production of main medicinal compositions by ecological factors at protein (key enzyme) and gene level to accumulate fundamental data for the enhancement of quality and quantity, and approach of new accesses to medicinal products using biological technology (cell culture and gene technology). Aimed at medicinal woody plants in Chinese forest resources, to develop the fundamental researches on resources protection and rational utilization will create many profound scientific significances. Firstly, medicinal woody plants are the important components of Chinese natural forest resources, so the problem for their protection and utilization, especially for that of tall trees, is quite remarkable and special. To reveal the internal contradictory between plant resources protection and its reasonable exploitation and exploit a practicable access to solve it will promote and accelerate the fulfillment of "natural forest protection project" in China. Secondly, traditional Chinese medicine is a main part of Chinese excellent ancestral culture, and the traditional utilizing models have been carried on for thousands of years. Accompanying with the development of human society, many unavoidable troubles such as the shortage of natural resources and the pollution of natural environment are more and more severely, which make the old models of the traditional Chinese medicine become more and more harmful and inaccessible to mankind. New substitutive approach to the utilization of traditional Chinese medicine, especially to that of Chinese medicinal woody plants will be one of the key methods to improve the present situation. Thirdly, traditional Chinese medicine, the cherish treasure of Chinese ancestral culture, need not only be preserved but also be developed. One of the main problems to restrict the extensive spread of the traditional Chinese medicine is its unstable quality, so to reach the stable quality and good quality is tightly linked to the improvement of traditional Chinese medicine. Hence the environmental regulation to the cultivation of medicinal plants, which can prove and guarantee the stable and high quality, will fit the demand on the production of medicinal plant material, and correspond to the goal of great efficacy and superior quality during the course of modernization of traditional Chinese medicine.