Internet research... where to start?

Today I was asked a question in a comment. The article it is linked to is buried in an archive, so I thought I'd bring it up front so everyone can see the answer. Thanks to Rhonda for asking!

I am very interested in research carried out on natural herbs which are comparable to various types of medications. It's almost like pulling teeth, trying to prove the enormous benefits of herbal treatments as opposed to contemporary medicines to my friends
and family. Do you know of any web sites like yours that may contain this type of info?

The information you are looking for is out there, but sometimes hard to find and rarely all-encompassing. Research is expensive, and a large sum of it is funded by pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical companies make their money back by you buying patented drugs. So if you're a drug maker, would you fund a study that might show folks how your product, with all it's side effects, compares to a natural and relatively side-effect free plant? Doubtful.

You also need to keep in mind that this stuff doesn't make for very interesting reading. And it was by no means written for the laity. Researchers write for other researchers, and their choice of words often reflects they haven't seen the sun in a while.

While hard research is difficult to find, it seems like there is an overwhelming abundance of anecdotal and "cure-all" information on herbs on the net. It's difficult to know who is speaking "the truth" and who is full of...

So to help, I've provided a resource list that I have found helpful. It's not exhaustive by any stretch, so I apologize now if I've left someone out. Would you like to see it? Hit the "MORE" button if you've got the guts...

Reliable Research Sites

I haven't the time to check these daily. Somebody email me if they find a dead link, OK?

• A Modern Herbal - The hyper-text version of A Modern Herbal, first published in 1931, by Mrs. M. Grieve, contains Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-Lore of Herbs.
  
• Southwestern School of Botanical Medicine - The invaluable site of Michael Moore
  
• TCM Herb Database - a frames-based on-line reference of clinical information about over 220 herbs of the TCM materia medica. It is intended as a convenient reference for both health professionals and their clients. The Rocky Mountain Herbal Institute provides free access to this database. NOTE: You must register first.
  
• Tropical Plant Database - Medicinal plants of the Amazon rainforest.
  
• Native American Ethnobotany Database - Materials provided by Dan Moerman, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
  
• Howie Brounstein's Home Page - Good list of links and information
  
• Michael Tierra's Planetherbs - Great info from the founder of the AHG
  
• Herbal Hall - Home of the Professional Herbalists Discussion List
  
• Ayurveda Materia Medica - From Dr. Vasant Lad's Ayurvedic Institute
  
• HealthWorld Online Materia Medica - by David Hoffman. Ignore all the marketing clutter and just read the info.
  
• The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics - by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D. (1922)
  
• HerbMed - an interactive, electronic herbal database. HerbMed is a project of the Alternative Medicine Foundation, Inc, provided as a freely available, public resource.
  
• Henriette's Herbal Homepage - Info and links from Henriette Kress.
  
• Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases - Queryable databases from the Agricultural Research Service
  
• Herbal Medicine from Herbal-Online - The two [holistic] doctors designed HolisticOnLine to provide objective health information on a huge host of topics, integrating both conventional and alternative medicine, in a user-friendly web site.
  
• Plants For A Future - This contains details of nearly 7000 plants, all of which are either edible, have medicinal properties or have some other use such as fibers, oils or soaps. For each plant the database contains details of the uses of the plants, as well as information on the environment it will grow in, and cultivation details.
  
• Phytotherapies.org - the on-line database of reliable information
  about herbal medicine for practitioners. Phytotherapies.org is a FREE service to practitioners registered with this site. The website is sponsored by Herbworx Corporation, an Australian company dedicated to ensuring that practitioners world-wide are supplied not only with high quality herbal medicine, but also clinically relevant, scientifically validated technical information.
  
• Medical Herbalism - a quarterly journal of herbal medicine, providing links to medical information and to any resource we can find relevant to medicinal herbs or herbalism practiced a clinical setting, regardless of the medical tradition or system.

Please don't assume that my linking to these sites means I endorse them in any way. Heck, I don't even agree with some of them. But they do provide useful information. Enjoy!

Posted by Evo Terra at December 29, 2002 08:16 PM | TrackBack (0)