Economic and ecological evaluation of the use of medicinal plants (Case study: Khorklat rangelands, Khorasan Razavi Province)

Knowledge of medicinal plants and by-products and economic evaluation of their exploitation is one of the basic requirements in order to prepare a vision document for the exploitation of rangeland by-products. In this regard, the present study was conducted with the aim of ecological assessment and estimating the economic indicators of the use of medicinal plants in the montion rangeland of Khor Kalat. For this purpose, in the years 2018 to 2020, in addition to sampling vegetation and measuring the production of medicinal plants production, economic data were also collected to calculate economic indicators. According to the results, the economic rent obtained from the use of medicinal plants includes Achillea millefolium, Allium Jesdianum, Alyssum homolocarpum, Althea officinalis, Bonium persicum, Erenjium bungei, Eremurus olgae, Gundelia tournefortii, Hyoscyamus niger, Hymenocrater incanus, Lallemantia royleana, Scrophularia striata, Stachys lavandufolia, Teucrium polium and Verbascum songaricum  in one harvest period, 1911750 Tomans per hectares per year. The expected value of each hectare of rangelands in the region in terms of production and exploitation of medicinal plants, considering the discount rate of 5.4% in 2020, was estimated at 354028 Tomans per hectare. In general, the results showed that the exploitation of medicinal plants based on ecological principles in the customary system under study, can play an important role in completing the livelihood of conventional users.