JEES Vol. 2 Issue 2/ Mitra, S. & Mukherjee, S.K. 2018 53 THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMY, ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY a multidisciplinary journal of advanced studies Journal homepage: www.hazidesaratcollege.org/JOURNAL Studies on the Ethnobotanically, Economically and Commercially Important Species of Asteraceae from West Bengal Sunit Mitra and Sobhan Kumar Mukherjee 1 Department of Botany, Ranaghat College, Ranaghat, Nadia.West Bengal, India. 1 Department of Botany, Plant Taxonomy and Biosystematics Laboretory, University of Kalyani, Kalyani- 741235, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India. Corresponding author: +919748216384 Email: sunit_mitra2003@yahoo.co.in; sobhankr@yahoo.com Article history: Original paper received on: 08.04.2018 Revised paper received on:21.04.2018 Paper accepted on: 27.04.2018 Keywords: Ethnobotany, important species, Asteraceae. West Bengal __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction Sunflower family or the Asteraceae (nom. alt. Compositae) with its approximately 1600 - 1700 genera and more than 24,000 species is the largest family of flowering plants (Funk et al. 2009) The members of this group are found to occur in all the regions of the globe except the Antarctica. The majority of Asteraceae species are herbaceous, yet an important component of the family is constituted by shrubs or even trees occurring primarily in the tropical regions of North and South America, Africa and Madagascar and in some isolated islands in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Many species of sunflowers are ruderal and especially abundant in disturbed areas, but a large number of them, especially in mountainous tropical regions show endemism in narrow areas. Because of habitat transformation by human activity in montane tropical regions, a number of these species are consequently in danger at the verge of extinction. Abstract: Sunflower family or the Asteraceae (nom. alt. Compositae) with it’s approximately 1600 - 1700 genera and more than 24,000 species is the largest family of flowering plants (Funk et al. 2009). In India this family is represented by 1314 taxa under 204 genera (Mitra and Mukherjee, 2017), from the state West Bengal this group is represented by 232 species under 99 genera. Out of these 232 taxa 32 taxa (13.8%) have the economic potentiality. These taxa are used in 108 different ways of which 79 used as ethnomedicinally, 1 as fodder, 5 as food plants, 05 as oil yielding plants, 2 used as dye, 1 for fish stupification and 1 as veterinary medicine.