[Resource situation investigation and analysis about endangered Chinese herbal medicine Daphnes Cortex]

In order to figure out the status and distribution of the wild and cultivated resources of traditional Chinese medicine Daphnes Cortex, its suitable habitat and endangering factors were analyzed to provide the basis for its rational use, protection and cultivation.Our research group tooka resources survey in Shanxi, Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai provinces, which include 23 counties. Investigation and sampling investigation combined with interview were carried out. The total reserve of resources was estimated through route-quadrat method in combination with the vegetation and soil-type map area method. The results indicated that there was no obvious change between the present distribution ranges of the wild Daphnes Cortex and its historical records, but the density of the population has undergone major changes. The wild reserves resources has declined seriously, even on the verge of exhaustion in some regions. According to the survey results, the current total reserve of the wild Daphnes Cortex in the four provinces was no more than 600 tons. Simultaneously, we only found the cultivated resource in a mountain at an altitude of about 2 800 m in Kang county of Gansu province, which cropping scope was about 33 000 m². The cultivated resource can't provide medicinal products at present, because their growing period is too short to have curative effect. Destructive excavation and the longer growth cycle result in a sharp decline of the wild resources reserves, even to the point of extinction. Artificial cultivation of product will become the main source of medicinal resources in the future. Therefore, we must protect its suitable habitat, formulate rational harvesting policy, strengthen the supervision of government departments, collect and establish the germplasm nursery and seed bank. On the basis, we must carry out studies into seed-selecting and breeding as well as rapid propagation and growth technology at once.