Plants Used as Medicines and Spices of the Family Magnoliaceae in Vietnam

摘要

Vietnam is located in South East Asia, which has a rich and divers biological resource. Its flora has over 10,386 vascular plant species, of which about 3,948 are medicinal registered (excluding Ethnomedicinal plants). Vietnam has also a long history of traditional medicine that plays an important role in the health care of millions of people, not only for nowadays, but also for the future. Furthermore, traditional medicine is especially important for the health care of the people living in the mountainous areas, where there are 53 ethnic minority groups, some of them living in very remote areas and they are isolated from the other groups of the population. This article gives an overview on the plants that used as medicines and spices of the Magnoliaceae family in Vietnam. This family has 9 genera with 45 species. There are three important genera such as Magnolia (composed of 12 species), Manglietia (8 species) and Michelia (18 species). Of which, 8 species are recorded in the Vietnam Red Data Book (2nd ed., 2007). Some of them have been chemically investigated. According to folk medicine of Vietnam and the other Asian countries, 12 species growing in Vietnam are used as medicines and spices.