DOCUMENTATION OF WILD MEDICINAL PLANT RESOURCES IN WEST RAJABHATKHAWA RANGE OF BUXA TIGER RESERVE, WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Medicinal plants are a rich source of biologically active compounds with therapeutic properties, historically utilized by various cultures to treat numerous ailments.Phytosociological surveys are crucial for identifying natural medicinal plant communities, documenting biodiversity, and understanding ecological changes over time.This study aimed to document the wild medicinal plant diversity in the West Rajabhatkhawa Range of Buxa Tiger Reserve, West Bengal, India, from 2019 to 2022.Covering an area of 6790.82 hectares, with 5631 hectares of forested land, a simple random quadrat sampling method was employed with a 0.1% sampling intensity, resulting in 140 randomly placed quadrats.The survey recorded 84 species from 42 families of wild medicinal plants, comprising 45% trees, 17% shrubs and 38% herbs.Asteraceae was the most represented family, accounting for 9% of the species, followed by Malvaceae (8%), Fabaceae (7%) and Apocynaceae (6%).The study emphasizes the need to improve the regeneration status of these medicinal plants and the extraction of their active ingredients for therapeutic use, highlighting the rich medicinal plant biodiversity in the region and its potential for future pharmacological research.