Checklist of Piperaceae in Bukit Bakar Forest Eco Park, Machang, Kelantan

This study was conducted to investigate the distribution of Piperaceae in Bukit Bakar Forest Eco Park, Machang, Kelantan. The random sampling methods is carried out in Bukit Bakar Forest Eco Park at different elevations namely lower part (50 – 100m), middle part (100 – 150m) and upper part (150 – 200m) with 100 m interval each which is parallel to the nature trail. About 10 species of Piper has been found from the Bukit Bakar Forest Eco Park with each species consist of several number of species were identified and recorded. Throughout this research, there are one species Near Threatened according to International Union for Conservation of Nature. It was found that one species of Piperaceae was documented as (Piper porphoryphylum). The diversity index represented by Shannon evenness index, H’ is 3.30 where as the computed evenness index is 0.76 for the overall of Piperaceae family. From the total of Piperaceae recorded, the highest diversity is at the middle part of the area (H’= 2.59) followed by upper part (H’=2.59) and lower part (H’= 1.10). The lowest part of the forest, the species evenness is totally (EH = 0.69) followed by middle part (EH= 0.82) and upper part (EH= 0.73). Based on this study, the checklist of Piperaceae species is provided and the explanation of the species have been made. This species of Piperaceae has it own important and mostly it can be used for medicinal value. The Piperaceae species that has been collected is Piper nigrum , Piper betle , Piper auritum, Piper aduncum, Peperomia pellucida, Piper sarmentosum, Piper porphyrophyllum, Piper ornatum , and piper serrulatium.