Plants in the Asteraceae Family Containing Essential Oils at Muong La Nature Reserve, Son La Province

This study aimed to evaluate the compositional diversity of essential oil-producing species within the Asteraceae family at Muong La Nature Reserve, Son La province. A comprehensive identification revealed a total of 56 species distributed across 39 genera. In addition to the value for essential oils, species of the Asteraceae family also demonstrate multiple application aspects, including medicinal (Th) with 54 species; and food (Tp) with 19 species. Additionally, 7 species as ornamental plants (Ca) while others are used for ornamental, and enological purposes. Fifteen Asteraceae species have a use value (UV) index ≥ 0.80, and 1 species (accounting for 1.72%) is identified as potentially threatened, listed in the Red Data Book of Vietnam 2007. Life forms of Asteraceae species studied are constructed as follows: the Spectrum of Biology (SB) = 50.00 % Ph + 21.43 % Th +16.07% Hm + 12.50% Ch. In the study area, the Asteraceae family is categorized into 6 main geographical factors: tropical Asia accounts (accounting for 78.57% of the total number), followed by Crop factor with 5 species (accounting for 8,93% of the total number) and Northern temperate elements with 3 species (accounting for 5.36%); Paleo-tropical with 2 species (accounting for 3.57%); The lowest factors include; Tropical Asia-Australia-America and sub-endemic with the same 1 specie (accounting for 1.79%).