ASTERACEAE: A TAXONOMICALLY AND MEDICINALLY IMPORTANT SUNFLOWER FAMILY

doi:10.46545/aijbls.v3i1.307

Abstract

The Purpose of the research: The study aimed to document the Asteraceae species in the study area. The study also examined the species diversity and medicinally important plants. Data, Materials, and Methodology: The work is based on fresh materials collected during thirty-six field visits to Paba Upazila of Rajshahi district, Bangladesh was carried out from November 2018 to October 2019 to cover the seasonal variations. Plant parts with either flower or fruits collected using traditional herbarium techniques to make voucher specimens for documentation. The results: The result shows in all, 44 species under 35 genera of the family Asteraceae were reported, out of which 40 (90.90%) were used medicinal applications for the treatment of more than 59 diseases. Major findings: The findings of the study that 25% of species were very common, 43.18% were common, 25% species were rare and 6.82% species were very rare in the study area. Mikania cordata (Burm.f.) Robinson is the only climbing species. Blumea laciniata (Roxb.) DC. and Wedelia trilobata (L.) Hitchc. has been reported for the first time in Paba Upazila of Rajshahi. The present study will help in identifying the major Asteraceae species for further investigation and also beneficial to develop the herbal drug development.

Highlights

Introduce of the Family Asteraceae The original name for Asteraceae (Compositae) was first described by the German botanist Paul Dietrich Giseke in 1792 (Solbrig, 1963)
The present paper investigated the family Asteraceae growing throughout Paba Upazila of Rajshahi district, Bangladesh was carried out from November 2018 to October 2019
A total of 9 species was focused in Lawachara National Park (Uddin & Hassan, 2010). 7 species was recorded in Runctia Sal Forest, Bangladesh (Tutul et al, 2010)

Summary

Introduction

Introduce of the Family Asteraceae The original name for Asteraceae (Compositae) was first described by the German botanist Paul Dietrich Giseke in 1792 (Solbrig, 1963). Asteraceae is one of the largest flowering plant families containing about 1100 genera and more than 20,000 species worldwide (Jones and Luchsinger, 1987). In Bangladesh, 71 genera and 130 species make up the family (Ahmed et al, 2008). Asteraceae species have a cosmopolitan distribution, except for Antarctica and the deep Arctic. In tropical and subtropical regions, in particular Central America, Eastern Brazil, the Mediterranean, the Levant, South Africa, Central Asia and Southwestern China (Panero et al, 2002), they are especially numerous. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution that colonizes a wide range of environments with species ranging from sub-polar to tropical. The highest proportion of the species occurs in subtropical and lower temperate latitudes in the arid and semiarid regions Asteraceans are prevalent in open and dry environments (Judd et al, 2007)

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