Do you believe herbs are completely safe because they are natural?   Are you taking herbs to replace drugs?  Do you know how they work on your body ?  Have you considered interactions herbs might have with other medications you take?   Have you noticed that every year there is a new fad herb?  Have you heard that herbs don't work?

IT'S MORE THAN NATURAL REMEDIES, IT'S NATURAL LIFESTYLES !
The remedy is only part of the cure.

    A true natural healing requires taking the time to explore the root causes of a condition. Treating the root cause instead of symptoms involves the gentlest and most direct way to returning to optimal health. Building health is more enduring than treating sickness.
    First principle is to be sensitive to yourself to feel symptoms early.  Stress management (quiet time, hot soaks, massage, nature walks) and good nutritious food incorporated into your daily life is safer and more natural than herbs.  Nature contains many powerful toxins which may be useful only if correctly used.   Laughter is the best medicine: bestof - LaughPage - Dilbert - TopFive -

Are you taking herb pills to replace drug pills?
    Many people seem so delighted about  herbs being a natural healing that they overlook how herbs often get used just like drugs. Herbs are the source of many commercial drugs and can be very powerful. Be careful with source, dose, interactions & length of time taken, just like for any drug.

Have you considered interactions herbs might have with other medications you take?
   There is a growing realization that this can be a very big problem because of insufficient communication between pharmacologists and herbalists and people taking combinations. Some notes are available at FDA, Brinker.

Do you know how they work on your body?
    Learning about the science of how complex herb compounds interact with your body is the hardest part - but it's worth it.  Despite the what simplistic headlines often shout, there are still many glaring gaps in knowledge about herbal medicine.  Always ask for references. It is amazing how blatant the deficiencies sometimes can be - such as a single study done on just a few people ! Coke2Starcaps -

Have you noticed that every year there is a new fad herb?
    The latest fad herb is likely to have a limited supply for the economic benefit of the promoters.  Too many plants have been driven near extinction by people walking past common weed plants having many of the same compounds and uses.   Plants at risk: UPS - b&t -

Have you heard that herbs don't really work?
    Despite the long legacy, there are many detractors claiming that herbs are either ineffective or dangerous.  Amazingly they sometimes contradict themselves in saying both at the same time!  Such naysayers tend to appear, at first, to be very concerned and very scientific.  But their true colors show when they defend conventional, but unhealthy, practices such as junk foods diet, environmental pollution, etc.  Their real client appears to be big business.  Some non-partisan scientists have addressed the contradictions and dis-information spread by the hecklers: Leung - Fugh-Berman
   Synergy of plant components has finally been established by solid biochemical evidence: Lewis

Have you read that herbs are dangerous?
    Curious how some medical professionals alternate between the contradictory positions that herbs are ineffective or that they are potent enough to be dangerous. These same individuals are usually the same ones who ignore the reports that adverse drug reactions in U.S. hospitals kill 100,000 people each year (see JAMA). Also see, "To Err is Human" (NAP). Surely, Socrates can affirm that herbs can be quite toxic, so care and information is necessary, just as for anything else that is ingested.
    The vioxx story is not so new as much as a replay of when aspirin took over the Willow bark market. Some observers of the time noticed that "Salix bark is less depressing to heart than salicylic acid" [Culbreth 1927]; Salicylic Acid large doses "depress the heart and respiration, lower the arterial tension" [Potter 1902]; Salicylic acid "induces general depression of the functions of the central nervous system. It depresses the action of the heart" [Ellingwood 1919]

Spray the weeds?
    'Weed' is a state of mind, a plant looking for a use. Ryan'syard What we often think of as prickly, poisonous weeds are there from human land use practices (slash & burn, overgrazing) and are part of the biological habitat healing process.  Imagine people harvesting these 'medicinal herbs' instead of spraying those 'noxious weeds' with herbicides.  Such plants deserve further investigation.  Here are some 'weed' sites to inspire more research:  Oudhia comment - USDAaphis - USDAnoxious - NPSalien - BLM -  CalDFA - Calweed - noxioustimes - NatureConservancy/ UCDavis - NatureConserv - British Columbia - Sasketchuan  - Arizona - Colorado - Colo Weed Mgt Assn - Connecticut - Hawaii - IdahoMontana  - Illinois - Indiana  - Iowa - Iowa - NJRutgers  - NY - Ohio - Oregon - Utah - WSU - King County, Wa - Wyoming - World - World - Weed o' Week - Cropnet - merriweb - weedsmart - garden invaders - globalWeeds - Coomb - forestryimages - Fletcher - Australia -
It is ironic that agribusiness and government spend millions on introducing bugs for biological control of a few plants instead of devising new uses for those 'nuisances'.

Herbs to drugs: Natural products are more diverse than combinatorial synthesis [Feher & Schmidt, J Chem Inf Comput Sci 43:218 2003]. Rediscovering natural products. [C&EN Oct 13 2003].

Nutrition, Food, Diet, Water

    Food is such an emotional issue and it's hard to change old habits.   Most people don't act out in daily life what they already know to do better with food.  You could actually do more for your health in doing, daily, what you already know than by finding out more about what to do.
    There are more opinions about food than you can imagine.    You could spend years trying to evaluate them (all the while continuing to munch on the same old food which you already know to be junk.  So the best place to start is with what you already know.  Just do it!       

Water Quality: Siouxlan - EPA test methods - epa watershed -
Nutritional Data USDAfoodcomposition - USDA fnic search - NAT(uiuc) - Langual - USDA data - USDAisoflavones - USDAflavonoids - USDAnutrients - NutritionData - UA links - Am Diet Assn - arbor - fastfood - VitGuide - searchnutrition($79/yr) - about MDR(JBC) - Nutrition subset of Medline1mil - Nutrition+Metabolism subset of Medline 3mil - supplementsLabels - DINE - google -
Nutrients: zinc - antioxidants(arbor) - oils - VRP - VRP reports - links - luteininfo - DrPasswaterArticles -
Algae: Earthrise spirulina - ToxicCyanobacteria - celltech blue-green - algae physiology -
Vegetarian: VRG - WinArgumentwithMeatEater - WinArgumentwithMeatEater - vegnews - susanv - vegy resource coop - veganmenu - NAm Vegy Soc - World Guide - UK vege pages - VegSocUK - UK vege pages - sivananda - vegan - vegan action - Hulsey - Casteel - ADA position - Vegetarian recipes - good diet - Veggie recipes - food cooperatives - fatfree - soyfeed - fishedout - chickdead? - earthsave (Robbins) links - dairyMonster - vegan Gregor - vegePassportTranslations - vegparadise - stevenvegan - vegyfriendlycities - GreenYourDiet - ChubbyVeganUtube - history - nofishZone - carnivores -
Food Science Links AJCN - UW - Mackin - Marques - Martindale - UA - UA Med Nutrit - UMD - yahoo - blonz - netspace - FDA food - NCI Vit A - metametrix - Bean Reference - VitaSoy - Nutr Sci News - Nutrition Reviews - Roby allergy - Inst Food Sci Tech - Inst Food Ag Sci-UFla - bookman -  pycnogenol/proanthenol - rainbow - walden vitamin - faminefoods(Freedman) - Soyfoods - soyproject - RousettKBNP - preparedfoods - nutrasolutions - tannin - tannin - SoySafety(Davis) - chipotleCalc - sci against cloned meat - HypertensionHerbs&Nutrients -
Food Safety: nuttreatment -
Carbohydrates: medbio -
Food Trends: IFT2010 - 13nutritionLies -
Sprouts: foodsafety - satitize - quicksilver -

Organic Processing: beecher -

Antioxidants: GoldacreCynic -

Food colors: wimona - chemsoc
Food additives: chemsoc - WHOfoodadditivesafety - WHOchemsafety -
Transfat danger

Food pics: salzburg - salzburg -

Flavor: Flavor Wheel - flavornet -

health foods sellouts

Consultants: CANI - DannyWells - Leung - Lapinskas - Torkelson -

Supplements R&D: aibmr - phytochem - supplinfo - omega 3 & 6 structures - LangualFoodThesaurus -

D'Adamo's blood type diet lacks science

Precautions

General comments: MMoore - NPRSupplements3/99 - controversial products-McCaleb - PID - Klein -
Contraindications, Toxic & Adverse Reports (safety is as important as effectiveness): FDA search - FDAplants - FDAplants - Purdue80 - Cornell90 - Grieve40 - MunroCanada250 - Munro - Munro - NIEHS search - U Fla70 - UAz30 - usda60 - UTexas50 - ATSDR search - ATSDR - Singapore10 - Cornell10 - mediherb (bear yui) -  70 poison pictures (UP) - 70 poison pics (ArrowK) - 50 poisonous pics (uiuc) - botanical dermatology - contact dermatology(Vanderbilt)  -  Rubberlatextbl - herbs to avoid during pregnancy (Langer) - FDAlist - Coke2Starcaps - ConsumerUnderreporting -
Plant poisons: Cornell - ARSsearch - ARS-leffingwell - PLANTOX? - Natl Ctr Tox Res - AAPCC - Pyrrolizidines Roder

Herb/Drug Interactions (clue to bias is if someone knocks herbs without mentioning food effects): Bergner - InteliHealth - grapefruit - lifebalm chart - Treasure - Wong09 - UMd - VitHerbUniv - drugdigest - IBIS -

Regulation: FDA supplements - FDABotanicalReview - NAS - colchicinePrice - colchicinePrice -

more about toxicology

Using Plants

Medical Botany Principles: Duke - FtLewis - WaynePalomarBot115 - Fundamentals of Pharmacognosy by M Heinrich $38 -
Pharmacognosy: AmSocPharmacognosy links - Umist links - Intl J Pharmacognosy now PharmaBio - phytopharmacognosy - phytopharmacognosy listserve - ChrisKing - Napralert keywords - Treasure deconstructing Varo Taylor -

Herb Phytochem Plant Chem db:
USDA: Phytochem db - Phytochem Searchcgi - Phytochem query - about phytochem - chem query - ParkPhytochem -
http://probe.nal.usda.gov:8300/cgi-bin/table-maker?db=phytochemdb&definition+file=chems-in-taxon&arg1=Genus+specie
Other: Moore 300 - Frendli - terpene db - quercetin-thorne - about phytochem db - greentea-thorne - antho-cyanidins-thorne - capsaicin QSAR - Proanthocyanidin - alkaloids - taiwan research - phytochemWorld - Phytochem Soc - JNatProd - PlantaMed (SocMedPlantRes) - kampoDBflavonoidswiki - PhytochemMS10k - TCMSP - TCMSPdoc - TaiwanTIP - TaiwanTIPdoc - MPDB Bangladesh - MPDBdoc -

PlantExtractChemicalLibraries: google - timtec4k - bioscreen5k - ibio12k - ibio12k - analyticon12k - MerlionGSK30k - NCI50k - microsource800 -

Extracts: methods - curcuminoids - bioperine - forslean - silibum - Aesculus
Distillation: The Art of Distillation by John French -
Perfume: GoodScents -

Cancer: NCIscreening - annieappleseed - Supplements&Cancer -
Melatonin: thorne - aeiveos - jor - Cracchiolo - Sahelian -
Estrogenic: phytoestrogen (tulane) - phytoestrogens - phoenix - phytoestrogen links - Aeron saliva hormone -  Cracchiolo - tulane - Cracchiolo yam - Stansbury - arbor -
Stimulants, Ephredrine & Caffeine: HRF - HRF - McCaleb - Blumenthal -
grapefruit -

Botanical Analysis: eurofins alpha - natural product extraction -

Herb Journals: J Natl Prod - Alt Med Rev - AMR contents - Phytochem - Herbnet mag - J Naturopathic Med - Bergner's Medical Herbalism J - Intl J Pharmacognosy (Pezzuto) - J Ethnopharmacology - Nat Products Reports - Fitoterapia contents(Indena) - RevCubana Plantas Med -

Ethnobotany, North Amer:  Moerman (umich) - Moerman (AGIS) - ARSmain - ARSsearch - ARS-leffingwell - Ugent(siu) - RFord UMich pdf - JonesCalif - Lincecum - Lincecum - Wash DOT 70  - Cabrillo Anthro links  - female puberty & menses - People & Plants - BookNet Ethnobot - bibliography - Bergnerlinks - ethnobot.com - herbalshaman (~200) - AFS1 - AFS2 - Stepp(UGa) - ecoport - fitoterapia - Horton - Thomson - ThomsonNewGuide - ThomsonNewGuide - ThomsonLloyd - Lloyd - hrafYale - permaculture -

MoermanMPNA format:
http://probe.nal.usda.gov:8300/cgi-bin/webace?db=mpnadb&class=Genus&object=Equisetum
ARS: ARSmain - ARS Ethno searchcgi - ARS-leffingwell - about Ethno - ARS Grin 117 plants download -   AGIS foodplant db (Duke) -  Duke ref codes - Duke activities -
    search format:
http://probe.nal.usda.gov:8300/cgi-bin/webace?db=ethnobotdb&class=Genus&object=Genus
http://probe.nal.usda.gov:8300/cgi-bin/webace?db=ethnobotdb&class=Taxon&object=Genus+specie

Ethnobotany, International: kew links - Kew Ethnobot - KewEcobot - Kew Sepasal(bear sby) - ethnobot links - KatzerSpices - Katzer - AllisonKnox -
 Latin America: raintre Amazon(100) - BibliotecaMedMex1100 - AztecMedGuerra66 - Costa Rica - Brazil plant list - NE Brazil - Surinam Caribs - Andes - SAmer - Surinam - Guyana - Machiguenga/Eastern Peru - Guin?Bissau - Brazil - Guiana - Chorti Wisdom - Kekchi Wilson - CentAmSyllabus - BrazilNubbe -
 Asia: Japan ETHMED (slow) - Maori -
 TCM Chinese: cam page - nus - dictCH - chemTCM(sbexj) - rmhi - cintcmTCD - materiamed - herbasin/dasherb - tcmassistant - kampoDB - kampoDBmetabolomics -
 India Ayurveda: Indian herbs - Ayurvedicdb(Smit) - Pharmacopoeia - IndianMedPltGrowers(sgbex) - IndianMedPltDict Khare07 - IndiaTKDL - India Traditional Knowledge Digital Library - IndiaTKDL - NISCAIR - Hyderabad - meddbDoak - mmdbd - mmdbd - Nepal -
 Pacific: Austl. Indigenous Health Net - Australia Natl Bot Garden - ANBG - Austral flora - Indigenous Health Net - Bali ethnobot (Duke) - Samoa(Dittmar) - APINMAP (Asian Pacific Info Network on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants) and HERDIN (Health Research and Development Info Network) -
 Arabic: Islamic(NLM)  
 Africa: metafro (sbj) - africamuseumBe - metafroBurn - prota - Menispermaceae - Tanzania - Schmelzer - NorthAfricaIUCN -
 Europe: rubia - rubia - Estonia -

Herbals Online, classic historic & ancient: Arber - Arber - Arber - CulpepperIndex - Culpepper - Culpepper - Culpepper(grey) - Culpepper(yale) - IbnSinaCanon1593 - Gerarde1597 - Grieve index - Grieve - Thoreau index - Gothick (Day) - TierralinCks - weight&measure - HenrietteClassicTexts(bearj) - Potter 1902 - Felter 1898 - Pharmacopoeae Bernensis Tentamen 1852 - Lilius Gregorius Gyraldus, Historiae Deorum Gentilium, Basileae: Oporinus 1548 - CommissionAncientTradition (Dalfen) - Winstonlinks - ParacelsusNLM - Galen - medica - Pliny - Pliny - StrasburgFlora - BrunschwigDistillandi - BrunBrunschwig - BrunschwigDistillandi1512 - Badianus - IndiaTKDL - Dodonaeus1550s - Fuchs 1545 - Fuchs1549 - Mathioli1562 - Theophrastus botany 300BC - 17thCentNotesWellcome - BrazilCaatinga1648 - BrazilCaatinga1648 - BrazilCaatinga1648 - BrazilCaatinga1648 - BrazilCaatinga1648 - BrazilCaatinga1648 -
  Egypt Papyri: LeakeReview1952 - Kahun1900BCGriffith - Hearst1550BCLeake - Erman1550BC - London1350Wreszinski - Berlin1350Wreszinski - Beatty1200Jonckheere -
   Ebers1550BC -  EbersCarpenter - EbersNederhof -
   Smith1600BCBreasted - SmithNLM - SmithNLMScroll - SmithNLM - SmithBryan - SmithTour -
  Hippocrates: wiki - RegimenMit - Regimentxt - Regimenebook - Mit - MITworks - AdamsMIT - archive - AdamsHarvardimg - VaHSL - UVa - UMKC -
  Dioscorides: wiki - ibidi - UVa - wikisource - paris - ibidi - heron - renaissance -

Herbals Online, modern:
  PFAF (description, usage, cult): pfafUses - pfaf(leeds) - pfafSearch (leeds) - pfafSearch (unc) - pfaf(perma) - pfafSearch (unc)  - pfaf download -
  Healthnotes ~250 (prima): healthzone - vitaminbuzz - mothernature(cmgi) monature25 - vitamins - home
  ABC Herbalgram: ABCCommissionE98 - commissionExt2000 - herbalgram - herbalgramArchive - herbalgramsearch - herbclip -
  Various: globinmed(bearj) - WHOvol1(100) - WHOvol1 - WHOvol1 - WHOvol1 - WHOvol2 - DL Hoffmann(170) - Hoffmann - onhealth(~170) - webmd - drugstore.com (~140) - healthshop (~160) - allherb (Hobbs 330) - Mooresw - Mooreunc - sequential (230) - herbalshaman (~200) - Kress -  hol online (2000) - hol online - Hol online name - kew econ bot links - vatican med - vatican bot - nih ods db (50 suppl, 250,000 rpts - krahe90 - symmetry 70 - smartbasic(65) - Miss Ext Svc search -   Minn ethno - FamineFood (Freedman) -  Nahuatl - Kresslinks -  JellinNaturaldatabase92/yr - JellinConsumerReports19/yr - scarletta - HealthCare RealityCheck Scepticism - viable(340) - SolgarNutritionfocus(200) - tnp(prima publ) - tnp.pro(bear j) - vicusCommissionE(bearj) - IntlMedPltGrowerConsortium(sbexcj) - IMgateway - EMEA - fileguru -
  Healthlink ~340: healthlink search - healthlink index - healthlink browse - software -
  Several: cebradsh(45) - monature25 - SFoster - SFoster - rxlist(40) - NPIC - UNC(35) - kew 2dozen - kc25 - belmont25 - rinfocan30 - fitomed25 -  Challem:altern to top10 drugs - thorne12 - Camilla Cracchiolo12 - AMA12 - vogel14 - naturalnet - wholehealth - herbalalt21 - ANMP - OSUlinks - fitomed - tork(A) - Swampy(30) - ricola(20) - mediherb(sobear j) -
  Shorts: waltzark - Davies egregore(130) -
  Herbweb herbage shorts (Johnson): omnicopia - herbweb a - herbage - herbweb links - herbweb tim
  Poor: pagans medline tidbits - UWa NLM links to ARS (80) - Natmedsol 120 - altnature(30) - drWhitaker briefs - shepherd chart - HerbalDave -  wholeherb? -
  Download Herbals: sunsite shareware - NaturBase - FLORIN - Felter(moore.pdf) - Culbreth 1927(moore.pdf) - Sayre1917 - pfaf download - Ellingwood(moore.pdf) - Ritter Mother's Remedies - Winstonlinks - Winston - henriette - Scudder1898 -
Other data sources: Johnson holisticopia herbage - IndonesiaMedPlants(bearj) - IBIDSupplements title search - IBIDS - medscape(cbs) - IOPIdatabases - USDA bibliographies - intramed - trieste links - HoffmanHerbalistCD - ThaiHerbalRepos - herbalnet - AssocEthnbioMexico -
Commercial Abstract Services: napralert - napralert(old) - napralert - napralert(stn) - napralertlist - AHP Upton - CAB - AGRIS & CARIS (FAO) - PASCAL & FRANCIS - EMBASE - BIOSIS - CAS chem abst - ESCOP Phytonet - Phytonet (PNNR101 txEM2I zero eye) - Medicinal Aromatic Plants Abst of NISCOM (formerly PID, CSIR), New Delhi -
Gathering, Storing, Preparation, Using: Cabrera - earthangel - stony mt - weights & measures - Neb-marketing & production - waltzark -

Other herblinks: TreasureBookworm - deconstructing Varro Tyler - Bergner - ethnolinks -  Ayahuasca/tryptamine - Kampo - Shaman - Dermatology Formulations(SoAfrica) - openNAPIS -
Plant Names:

Individual Plants: I have some links at plants.html but please go to HerbMed for complete & organized Medline abstracts - herbmedpro - gaiaherbmed - TCMgendit -

Combinations and Mixtures: earthangel -

Schools: ColPhytotherapy - Bastyr - SWInst - Bridgeport -
Education links: newage -

Interesting Links: Carvalhas - rosenthal - rosenthal - rmhi - CompleatBotanica - gardenweb - medwebplus - medwebplus herbs - guiaverde links - IDBG - Phillips(colby) - Plunkett - allherb - npdc - statelist - (usda) - NPDC - Kew - Kew others shamanism - lloyd - Bower Complementary Med - yahoo alt med - yahoo herbs - marco bleeker - mcmaster - vlib biosci - marcotte alt med - botanical - cornell botany - cornell biodiversity - Humphries biodiversity - Torkelson - countrylife links - holisticmed - VL - flora europa? - hoxsey - goodhealthdir - PharmaviteNatureMade - Haughton - New crops - Morton Fruits - CMAPSEEC conf reports -
Fair Links: tims - Brounstein - Brounstein - algy med herb links - medweb search (emory) - wellnessweb/Hughes - Brach - native am Tropicos search - umist - dentali - yamasaki? - hyperborea (cute) JL McLaughlin, Purdue - problemas em biossintese - Eden - WHO - ILDISLegumeweb - ILDIS Legumes - FLOTURK? - NAPRALERT? - Poisonous Plants in Britain CD - PROSEA SouthEast Asia - SEPASAL (Survey Economic Plants for Arid & Semiarid Lands, Kew) - TRADIMED TCM; Seoul Natl. U.Natural Products Res Inst) - HOPKINS CD Hoffman's Herbalist - DSQuali - leffingwell -

other data sources lacking web access:
NATTS db, Central Drug Research Inst, Lucknow, India.
PLANTES MEDICINALES CD, ALGOVISION, Paris.
MEDICINAL PLANTS OF MALTA: 300 plants, Univ of Malta
MAPI (Major Aromatic Plants of India)?, Lucknow.
MEDICINAL PLANTS OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA from Wau Ecology Institute Herbarium, Wau, PNG, containing botanical, phytochemical and ethnopharmacological information on plants native to PNG.
INMEDPLAN (Indian Medicinal Plants National Network; Bangalore.
DIRECTORY OF SPECIALISTS IN HERBS, SPICES AND MEDICINAL PLANTS Compiled by Professor Lyle Craker, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
Langer's DROGENANALYSE: Deutscher Apotheker Verlag of Stuttgart, Germany. Contains names, synonyms and illustrations of 2400 medicinal and poisonous plants.
GREEN MEDICINE: Chinese Herbal Medicine database published by the Journal of Chinese Medicine, Hove, Sussex. UK.
AHEAD (Asian Health, Environmental and Allied Databases) CD-ROM series, disks 2&3. Contact NISCOM, New Delhi, or IDRC, Canada.
BACIS (Boelens Aroma Chemical Information Service). essential oils and other volatile compounds.
TCMLARS (Traditional Chinese Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System, English/Chinese bilingual)  China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing.
TCM database and CHIMERA, a bibliographic database on reported cases of adverse reactions to Chinese foods, from Chinese University of Hong Kong.
MedPhyt

Suppliers: 2k Albany Bothell - ayush -

Herb business assoc: Herbworld - AHPA -

?1995-2010 Soaring Bear; your comments & corrections are welcome