Survey on Medicinal Plants Used in the Folk Medicine of Current Bulgarian Society as a Basic Information for Plant Protectionogy

. Traditional herbal medicine has gained increasing interest. Modern ethnobotany is focused on documentation of traditional knowledge as a base data for plant diversity protection. The present survey aimed to estimate the status of uses of medicinal plants in current Bulgarian society. The study is focused on most commonly used wild plants in studied regions as a basic information for development of plant protection strategies. Ethnobotanical information was collected during semi-structured interviews. Respondents have been selected based on their knowledge – people known to be particularly interested in traditional health practices. Respondents declare empiric knowledge as the major source of information. So, results revealed medicinal plants explored for decades in studied regions. A total number of 88 plant species, belonging to 43 families were recorded. The most dominant plant families were Asteraceae (28%), Lamiaceae (26%) and Rosaceae (19%). Majority of cited species are wild (60.2%), including protected species Galanthus nivalis L., Primula veris L., Asplenium scolopendrium L. and Sideritis scardica Griseb. (Balkan endemic). Herbs represent the majority (72.7%) of the reported plant species. The most used parts of the plants were leaves (40.9%). To our knowledge this is the first survey in Bulgaria only with selected respondents. The number of plants reported reflects well-preserved traditional knowledge in the investigated region. Quantitative analysis revealed the significance of species for local people. Majority of cited species are wild. From the point of view of sustainable ecology information to local people about the importance of preservation of natural habitats of wild species should be provided.