Assessing production systems and biodiversity of medicinal plants in agroecosystems of Qazvin province

In order to investigate biodiversity and production of cultivated medicinal plants in agroecosystems of Qazvin province, a study was conducted during year of 2011. Interviews were carried out with farmers by using semi-structured questionnaire to obtain information regarding to biodiversity and medicinal plants production systems in main regions under cultivation of medicinal plants including four regions of Qazvin province (Takestan, Abyek, Qazvin and Alamut). Then agrobiodiversity criteria such as species richness, diversity indices and Sorenson similarity index of medicinal plants were calculated. The results indicated that 36 medicinal plants species were cultivated in Qazvin province in which the most medicinal plants species under cultivation were belonged to Lamiaceae, Asteraceae and Apiaceae families. In addition, around 70% of medicinal plants agroecosystems in studied area were managed based on low input cropping systems. In general, species richness, was 16, 1, 24 and 20 in Takestan, Abyek, Qazvin and Alamut, respectively and also Shannon-Wiener index and species evenness index were 0.47 and 0.28, respectively in Qazvin province. Based on Sorenson similarity index, the highest similarity (0.61) was observed between Takestan and Alamut regions whereas Abyek with Qazvin and also Abyek with Alamut showed the lowest amount of similarity index. In general, results of this study revealed that Qazvin region was superior in most studied criteria compared to other studied regions that could be due to existence of medicinal plant industry in addition to geographical parameters in this region.