Forest trees of Odisha, India: An updated checklist

An exhaustive taxonomic inventory of forest trees of Odisha in the Eastern Ghats of India was made during 2015–2020, which revealed the presence of a total of 501 species of wild and naturalised trees belonging to 284 genera under 80 families. The family Euphorbiaceae was the most species-rich represented by 45 species, followed by Rubiaceae (28), Mimosaceae (27), Moraceae (26) and Meliaceae (23). The genus Ficus (Moraceae) had highest number of 21 tree species, followed by Diospyros (10 species), Syzygium (8 species), Albizia (8 species), Senegalia (7 species), Vitex (7 species) and Terminalia (6 species). Nothopodytes nimmoniana, Alphonsea madraspatana, Lasiococca comberi, Siphonodon celastrineus, Searsia paniculata, Syzygium schmidii, Cassipourea ceylanica, Prunus pygeoides, Sonneratia griffithii, Eriolaena hookeriana var. viridis, Dimorphocalyx glabellus, Garcinia xanthochymus and Litsea glutinosa have been identified as regionally threatened species needing conservation intervention. Cocculus laurifolius is reported here as a new distributional record for the state. Field observation on the occurrence and dominance of tree species in different forest types of Odisha has been discussed. A checklist of the tree species of Odisha is presented in this article, along with the correct botanical name, synonym(s), local name, flowering and fruiting time, locality of occurrence and citation of voucher herbarium specimens

Quality control of marketed herbal products of Asparagus racemosus Willd. through high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) analysis

Asparagus racemosus Willd. is a valuable medicinal plant which is used all over the world. There are several marketed products of A. racemosus. The high demand for this herb has increased the risk of adulteration in its commercial products. The adulterated herbal products might pose serious ill effects on health. Therefore, it is necessary to check the quality of marketed products in terms of the presence of their major bioactive compounds. The present study aimed to carry out the qualitative and quantitative analysis of Shatavarin IV in marketed products of A. racemosus through a validated high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method. Ten marketed products were analysed and all of them had shown the presence of Shatavarin IV which was quantified. The identification and quantification were done by taking a standard Shatavarin IV as reference. The Shatavarin IV was detected at Rf 0.4±0.05 and showed maximum absorption at 425 nm. The Shatavarin IV was quantified using a 6-point calibration curve having a standard deviation of 3.89 % with an R2 value of 0.9968. The amount of Shatavarin IV varied between 1.47±0.25 to 2.69±0.51 mg/g on a dry weight basis which is a normal range in the raw plant materials. Thus, the present findings would be a simple, reliable and cost-effective method for the quality determination of herbal products of A. racemosus. The developed HPTLC chromatograms would serve as a reference for the quality assessment of commercial products of A. racemosus in future