The results of the field accounting of medicinal plants in the forest and forest-steppe zones of Central Russia

. To assess the potential of the raw material base of medicinal plants and search for new plant sources of biologically active substances, it is necessary to monitor and record the biological diversity of plants, their number and abundance in natural plant communities. Plants are counted by the transect method. In the course of field research in 2022, the biodiversity, abundance, and abundance of medicinal plants in three regions of Central Russia were assessed. In the Lipetsk Region (the lower reaches of the Chichera River, the valley of the Sukhaya Lubna River), the most notable species of the Ranunculaceae families were identified: Adonis vernalis L. (spring adonis); Rosaceae: Agrimonia eupatoria L. (common agrimony); Filipendula vulgaris Moench (six-petalled meadowsweet). In the Samara region (floodplain of the Sok River) - Rosaceae: Sanguisorba officinalis L. (burnet officinalis); Filipendula vulgaris Moench; Ranunculaceae: Adonis vernalis L. In the Moscow, Ryazan region (Meshchera) species of families - Rosaceae: Potentilla argentea L. (silver cinquefoil) (Rosaceae), Fragaria vesca L. (wild strawberry), Potentilla erecta L. (upright cinquefoil), Comarum palustre L. (marsh cinquefoil); Onagraceae: Chamaenerion angustifolium (L.) Scop. (fireweed narrow-leaved); Asteraceae: Helichrysum arenarium (L.) Moench.; Caprifoliaceae: Valeriana officinalis L. (valerian officinalis); Hypericaceae: Hypericum maculatum L. (St. John's wort); Equisetaceae: Equisetum arvense


Introduction
Monitoring of the biological diversity of plant communities, systematic observations in different ecological and geographical conditions is the basis for assessing the potential of the raw material base of medicinal plants, the search for new plant sources of biologically active substances. Research should be carried out in a stationary and semi-stationary mode, constantly accumulating information on the systematic composition of medicinal plants in the flora, plant community, the dynamics of productivity and occurrence of plants, and their quality. Based on the collected data, a list of medicinal plant species is determined, which are the object of collecting samples of medicinal raw materials for chemical analysis or harvesting of plant species in specific natural units.

Material and research methodology
For the knowledge of natural medicinal lands, it is important to know what types of medicinal plants are found in individual geomorphological elements, what are their levels of abundance, abundance and characteristics as a source of a certain group of chemical compounds.
The subject of the study is the biological diversity of medicinal plant species, with a noticeable abundance and abundance in the surveyed habitats (mainly river floodplains), selected for monitoring and determining the potential for collecting medicinal plant materials.
The abundance is understood as the number of individuals of plant species (ramets, genets) found per unit area (mainly, their shoots were recorded).
For such plants as wild strawberries, erect cinquefoil and others growing in clusters (homogeneous group, "spot" in the form of a circle, oval), the area occupied by them was measured. In the future, these plants are characterized by the indicator "By area" in m 2 , since it is not advisable to count all the shoots of a plant in a "spot" of a homogeneous composition.
By abundance, we mean the proportion (in %) of the projective cover of a plant species per unit area (1 m 2 ), obtained from the geobotanical description of the vegetation cover. Abundance is a qualitative characteristic and can be assessed in points on various scales (Table 1) [1,2].
Plants are counted by the transect method. To do this, a cord is stretched from one point (30 m long) and in each equal segment 1 m wide and 5 m long (account sample 5 m 2 ), the number of shoots of a certain, discovered type of medicinal plant is taken into account.
Several transects with different directions and route forms (linear, zigzag or fan) were laid on the monitoring site. Three transects were usually carried out at one counting site, linearly or brokenly located in a selected area of the habitat of medicinal plants. The area of direct counting of plants under three transects was 90 m². With such accounting, a habitat area of about 700 m² was covered (for example, an area of almost square shape 25 m x 30 m or elongated 10 m x 70 m, etc.).
The abundance of plants was estimated by the degree of coverage (in %) of a plant species on a geobotanical site of 1 m 2 ( Table 1). Thus, the purpose of the field work is to study, by geobotanical methods, the biological diversity of medicinal plants in the forest and forest-steppe natural zones of Central Russia, their abundance and abundance in the landscapes of the Meshchera lowland (the province of Meshchera mixed forests), the Central Russian (Central Russian forest-steppe province) and the Bugulma-Belebeevskaya uplands (province forest-steppe of the Low Trans-Volga region). Field studies were carried out in the 2022 season on the territory of the Lipetsk (lower reaches of the Chichera river, the valley of the Sukhaya Lubna river), Samara (floodplain of the Sok river), Moscow, Ryazan regions (Meshchera).

Tracts of the Lower River. Chichera and Bykova Sheya (Lipetsk region)
The Lipetsk Region is located in the central part of the East European Plain, at the junction of the Central Russian Upland and the Oka-Don Plain, in the forest-steppe landscape zone of the temperate zone. This forest-steppe part belongs to the Central Russian forest-steppe physiographic province. The forest-steppe of the province is ancient -pre-glacial, its flora is rich in relict species [3].
The elevated, dissected relief of the Upper Don influences the climate, soils, and vegetation. Thick ravine-beam network, where the natural biodiversity of plants is preserved. For accounting and monitoring of medicinal plants, a winding, dissected valley of the river was chosen. Chichera (a tributary of the Don River, its lower reaches), its section, from the village of Lipovka to the former village of Vasilievka (about 5 km long), as a separate, integral natural unit, with well-defined boundaries. Summary data on eight counts of species of medicinal plants (as an object of collection) with a noticeable number, counted on transects in the tracts of the Lower River. Chichera and Bykova Sheya are as follows ( Figure 1  A feature of the distribution of these plant species is locality, that is, the uneven growth of plants in a marked number, "spots", with a large range of percentage of projective coverage (abundance) located in certain parts of the valley and its relief elements. The determination of these indicators by the DLR in the tracts of the lower reaches of the Chichera and Bykovo Sheya rivers showed a high variability in the abundance, density, and occurrence of the estimated species. Thus, the count of spring Adonis (Adonis vernalis L.) showed a density in the "spot" of its growth, reaching 38 ± 8.1 ind./m² (floodplain of the Sukhaya Lubna River).

Floodplain of the Sok River (Low Volga region, Samara region, Sergievsky district, former village of Staroe Oboshino)
In the system of physical-geographical zoning of the Middle Volga region, the Soksky physical-geographical region, where the registration of species of medicinal plants was carried out in the floodplain of the Sok River, occupies the north-eastern part of the Samara region. The vegetation cover of the region consists of steppes, meadows and forests. The characteristic dissection of the relief, the terraces of the rivers above the floodplains and the gentle slopes of the watersheds are treeless and plowed. Meadow vegetation is upland meadows located along the bottom of ravines, on the lower and middle parts of the slopes, in river valleys. Flooded floodplain meadows, chosen as the object of monitoring the biodiversity of medicinal plants, have a high diversity and potential of the raw material base [4].
Based on the summary data on the surveys in the floodplain of the river. The sap (3 counts) and on the steppe vegetation site (1 count) of species of medicinal plants counted on transects with a noticeable abundance (more than 69 specimens for the entire counting area (360 m 2 ), the following are distinguished ( Figure 2

Meshchera (Mitinskaya, deposit (Moscow region), Pra river floodplain, Ryazan region)
Polissya is a forest region and is located in the central part of the East European Plain, between the Klyazma and Oka rivers. The landscape is a flat plain, with sandy hills and marshy lowlands. On the tops of sandy hills there are light pine forests with lichen, in open areas there are upland meadows. Rivers flow in flat and marshy valleys.
In Meshchera, our objects of study are meadow-marsh communities, old fallows with a developed vegetation cover, dry valleys, floodplain meadows of small rivers (for example, the floodplain of the river Pra).
3. Riverside Pra, Struzhany (registration plot No. 20,30 m² To characterize medicinal plants as a source of biologically active substances (BAS), the most prominent species identified during the surveys are divided into groups of chemical compounds. The distribution of identified species of medicinal plants in the surveyed habitats by groups of chemical compounds showed the widespread content in them, primarily of flavonoids (aigenin, hyperin, quercetin, quercitrin, kaempferol, rutin, luteolin), steroids (adonitoxin, strophanthidine, cymarin, beta-sitosterol), tannins hydrolyzable (ellagic, gallic acid) ( Table 2). The assessment was carried out on the basis of the data of the reference book on biologically active substances of plant origin B.N. Golovkina, R.N. Rudenskaya, I.A. Trofimova, A.I. Schroeter [5].

Conclusion
In the course of field studies of biodiversity, abundance, abundance of medicinal plants in three regions, the following types of medicinal plants were identified, the most noticeable and promising in terms of collecting phyto-raw materials and analyzing groups of chemical compounds: More A characteristic is given of 15 species that are noticeable in terms of the number of species in relation to the content of groups of chemical compounds in them.