The aim of this work was to search for chemical, biological and ethnobotanical data in the scientific literature on medicinal species from a remnant of High Montane Araucaria Moist Forest. This study was based on the floristics performed in "Fazenda das Nascentes", Urupema Municipality, Santa Catarina State, Brazil between August 2007 and September 2008. From the list of species obtained in this survey, a review on the medicinal potential of these recorded species was done. A vegetative identification key was elaborated for species with medicinal action Information about medicinal potential was found in the researched bibliography for 29 off the 64 listed species. The main families were Asteraceae (eight species) and Myrtaceae (three species). The arboreal habit predominated among plants with medicinal potential (13 species). The most frequent chemical component among species was essential oil (60% species). The most cited therapeutic activities in the researched literature were antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antifungal and anesthetic. The present results indicate the huge economic potential of Araucaria Moist Forest and associated environments as sources of natural resources that are part of the culture and inheritance from the Santa Catarina State.
medicinal plants; phytotherapy; Araucaria Moist Forest
