XVI International Botanical Congess

The Vietnam Flora is very rich and diverse. On an area of 329,566 sq. Km Vietnam has over 10,386 species of vascular plants (including cultivated plants), belonging to 2,257 genera and 305 families (P.K.Loc, 1998). According to the book Medicinal Plants in Vietnam (1990) of the National Institute of Materia Medica, Vietnam has found 1,863 species of medicinal plants belonging to 1,033 genera and 236 families. V.V. Chi, the author of the book Dictionary of medicinal Plants in Vietnam (1997) has listed over 2,500 species of flowering plants, belonging to 1,050 genera and 230 families. Among them, 27 families having 10-20 medicinal plants, 11 families having 21-30, 15 families having 31-40, 2 families having 41-50 and 11 families having over 51 medicinal plants. There are 4 families with a number of medicinal plants over 100, such as: Rubiaceae (112), Euphorbiaceae (139), Compositae (162) and Leguminosae (262).