Journal of Ethnopharmacology 65 (1999) 165 – 172
Short communication
The medicinal flora of Similipahar forests, Orissa State, India
R.D. Girach *, A.A. Shaik, S.S. Singh, Mustaq Ahmad
Surey of Medicinal Plants Unit, Regional Research Institute of Unani Medicine, Bhadrak 756100, India
Received 29 August 1997; accepted 8 August 1998
Keywords: Jammu and Kashmir flora; Medicinal flora; North America
1. Introduction
The Similipahar hills of Mayurbhanj district are
located between 20°17 and 22°10 north latitudes
and 85°57 and 86°47 east longitudes in the State
of Orissa, occupying a southeastern portion of
India. The forests of Similipahar, extending over
an area of 2750 km
2
, are among the most luxuri-
ant and valuable forests of the State. The hills,
with their innumerable crests and valleys, inter-
spersed with countless streams and rivers exhibit a
great degree of topographic variation, ranging
from 300 to 1166 m above sea level. Geological
formation of the region consists of submetamor-
phic sandstones and quartzite haematites. The red
sandy soil is found throughout the iron belt from
Gorumohisani hills to Thakurmunda and in
Badampahar and Suliapat. The flora of the Simili-
pahar with economically useful plants has recently
been described by Saxena and Brahmam (1989)
while the medicinally useful plants of the region
have been described in various recent papers (Sax-
ena and Dutta, 1975; Mudgal and Pal, 1980;
Saxena et al., 1981; Tribedi et al., 1982; Saxena
and Brahmam, 1989). The present study was un-
dertaken to determine the degree of importance of
plant families in the medicinal flora of the region.
2. Methodology
The data shown in Table 1 are based on medic-
inal uses of plants recorded in the sources listed
above, in addition to the field trips of 20 days
each in 1985, conducted by RDG in the region.
The field trip resulted in the collection of 270
plant species, belonging to 217 genera and 86
plant families. The plants have been placed in the
families according to the Bentham and Hooker
system of classification. The nomenclature has
been based on the most recent work in the geo-
graphic area by Saxena and Brahmam (1989).
Using the method of regression and residual anal-
ysis recently described by Kapur et al. (1992) in * Corresponding author.
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