Subject: *HELP* MEDICAL PLANTS NEEDED!!!

From: [email-masked] (Hao Chau)
Date: 23 May 1995 17:55:36 GMT

Hello! Does anyone know were I can retrieve information on
plants and how they help in the medical industry?
I really need sites on the INTERNET that has this kind of 
information for the public! Please if you have any info at
all, reply to me no later then May 26,1995

Thank You!

-Hao Chau

---

From: [email-masked] (Henriette Kress)
Date: 25 May 1995 12:35:54 GMT

>from  the herbfaq on alt.folklore.herbs (I'm the keeper...):
Archive-name: medicinal-herbs/part1
SunSITE-archive-name: medicinal-herbs.faq.part1.v1.10
Posting-Frequency: monthly (on or about 20th)
Last-modified: 1995/05/20
Version: 1.10

A medicinal herbs FAQ / Resource list for the alt.folklore.herbs 
newsgroup, 
available by ftp at sunsite.unc.edu under 
pub/academic/medicine/alternative-healthcare/herbs/faqs/medicinal-herbs.f
aq.part1.v1.10

Keeper:
  Henriette Kress ([email-masked])
Contributors so far:
  Gloria Mercado-Martin ([email-masked])
  Howie Brounstein ([email-masked])
  Jonathan Treasure ([email-masked])
  Kathjokl ([email-masked])
  Ken Rice ([email-masked]),
  Lawrence London ([email-masked])
  Mark D.  Gold ([email-masked])
  Paul Iannone ([email-masked])
  Rob McCaleb ([email-masked])
  Steve Dyer ([email-masked])

==========
CONTENTS
-----
1.0  Introduction
2.0  Frequently asked questions
   2.1  Valeriana/Valium
   2.2  Yohimbine a MAO inhibitor
   2.3  Absinthe
   2.4  St. John's Wort (Hypericum) and Photosensitivity
   2.5  Ginseng - NOT YET
   2.6  Stevia Leaf - Too Good To Be Legal?
*  2.7  Poison Ivy - ADDITION
   2.8  Hint for Kombucha posters
   2.9  Hint for Essiac posters
   2.10 Tinnitus FAQ pointer
*  2.11 Plant and Seed Catalogs FAQ pointer - ADDITION
*  2.12 
3.0  General Info
   3.1  Introduction to side effects, safety and toxicity of medicinal
        herbs
   3.2  Wildcrafting Ethics
   3.3  East Asian traditional Healing - an introduction - NOT YET
   3.4  Commercial posts and how to get rid of them
   3.5 Traditions in Western Herbal Medicine
*  3.6  Ayurveda - an introduction - NOT YET
   3.7  
4.0  Good Printed Sources
   4.1  Good Books on Herbal Medicine for the beginner
   4.2  Good Books for further studies
   4.3  Good Magazines
5.0  Other sources
  5.1  Napralert - on-line commercial database
  5.2  Medline - on-line commercial database
  5.3  Good Herbprograms for the PC
  5.4  Good Herbprograms for the Macintosh
  5.5  Herbal CD-ROM
6.0  Apprenticeships offered lately
7.0  Check these sites
  7.1  Medicinal Herb Archives at sunSITE.unc.edu 
  7.2  Interesting WWW pages
8.0  Mailing lists
  8.1  The Herblist
  8.2  The Aromatherapy list
  8.3  The Holistic list
  8.4  The Kombucha list
  8.5  The Paracelsus Mailing list
  8.6  The OrMed Mailing list
9.0  Related newsgroups

==========
...
==========
5.0 Other sources

==========
5.1 Napralert - online commercial database
-----
I asked Mary Lou Quinn about Napralert, and was surprised when she
signed, Managing Director, NAPRALERT...  She states the difference
between Medline and Napralert as follows:

NAPRALERT is and always has been restricted to world literature
regarding natural products.  Medline is not restricted.  Just as
one example, if you query NAPRALERT on the key word AMYGDALIN, you
will get only that literature pertaining to the compound AMYGDALIN
(otherwise known as LAETRILE).
If you query Medline, not only will you get the above, but you will
also get lots of articles dealing with the Amygdala of the brain,
anatomy, physiology, etc.  It has never been NAPRALERT'S goal to be
all inclusive regarding medical science.  However, if you want the
most comprehensive database on Medicinal plants and Natural products,
then NAPRALERT is the way to go.

She also snailed me an information package.  Quoting from that:

Napralert (NAtural PRoducts ALERT) is a relational database of world
literature on the chemical constituents and pharmacology of plant,
microbial and animal (primarily marine) extracts.

It's housed and maintained by the Program for Collaborative Research
in the Pharmaceutical Sciences, within the Department of Medicinal
Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, in the College of Pharmacy of the
University of Illinois at Chicago, 833 South Wood Street (M/C 877),
Chicago, IL 60612, U.S.A.
Phone (312)-996-2246, Fax (312)-996-7107.

And here is what it'll cost you:

You can access Napralert by paying bulk rate (subscribing) or by
paying per question.  Annual subscription fee for individual user
with no ties to government agencies, small or large businesses,
research institutes or libraries: USD 100, of which half gets you
manuals, a user ID/password, and limited disk storage space, and
the other half gets you answers (at USD 0.75 per reference obtained).

Per question rate: USD 25 + USD 0.75 per reference obtained.
Off-line (snailmail rate): USD 25 + USD 0.75 per reference obtained.

NAPRALERT is also available on-line through STN in the US, Europe
and Asia.

For more info and user ID application email [email-masked]
(Mary Lou Quinn).

==========
5.2 Medline - online commercial database

----- ADDITION:
Comment by Mark D.  Gold ([email-masked]):
"I find it (Medline) a very useful tool.  But it important to realize
that there are several articles which warn about the "dangers" of
herbs (particularly in JAMA) which are little more than inaccurate
hatchet jobs."

-----
This entry is based on the Medline FAQ by Gregory W.  Froehlich, M.D.,
edited by [email-masked].

> I've been hearing a lot about "med-line".  What exactly is it, what
> is it used for, and can you access it via internet?

I'll quote from the National Library of Medicine:

"Thousands of new books and articles in biomedicine are published
every month.  How can a health professional or investigator easily
locate literature relevant to a particular area of patient care or
research?

Since the early 1970's, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has
made searching the biomedical literature faster and easier by
providing online information retrieval on the MEDLARS, (MEDical
Literature Analysis and Retrieval System) family of databases.
MEDLINE - NLM's premier database - has over 7 million citations to
biomedical articles and is searched more than eighteen thousand times
a day.

The cheapest way to access Medline is to attend a school or
university with a medical library.  Many schools give free medline
access to students.  Some university medical libraries will provide
free Medline access to the public: this varies with the school and
the state in which it's located.  It's worth checking out.  A few
municipal public libraries also offer free access.

It's also possible to get a direct account and search Medline from
your home.  However, there is no free way to do this.

In order to make searching even easier and provide a user-friendly way
to use the MEDLARS system, NLM, in 1986, developed a software package
called Grateful Med.  The simplicity and efficiency of searching with
Grateful Med have made it immensely popular -more than 50,000 copies
of the software have been sold since its introduction." (You can also
access Medline through commerical services like PaperChase, etc - more
costly).

Step 1: Get a user ID/password.  You can call the National Technical
Information Service at 1-800-423-9255 for info, or write to them at:

              NTIS
              5285 Port Royal Road
              Springfield, VA 22161

Or, you can be a cyberstud and get the application form 'userid.txt'
by anonymous ftp from nlmpubs.nlm.nih.gov in the directory /online/
medlars.

Step 2: Decide whether to use a front end (Grateful Med) or to learn
how to communicate directly with MEDLINE (HINT: pick door #1).
Download it from the same server above (check through the /grateful
directory for the files you need) or order it from NTIS (see Step 1,
or get the order form 'gmorder.txt' in the directory /online/medlars).
It's $30 or so the latter way.

Step 3: If you decide against using Grateful Med, you can access
MEDLINE through programs like Telnet at medlars.nlm.nih.gov.  You'll
need an ID/password.  You can also access MEDLINE through commercial
services such as PaperChase (Telnet to pch.bih.harvard.edu, enter
pch, signup when it asks for password)

$$$: NTIS charges for access; I seem to pay about a dollar a search.
Hourly charges work out to about $20/hour, but some searches, where
abstracts are retrieved can be more expensive.  Commercial services
like PaperChase (available on CompuServe) are also more expensive.

==========
...
==========
7.0 Check these sites:
-----
Among the goodies you'll find the AFH archives, Michael Moore's files,
and some nice WWW pages.

==========
7.1 Medicinal Herb Archives at sunSITE.unc.edu
-----
If you find sunSITE.unc.edu is too busy to give you anonymous access
you can try the mirror site in Japan, SunSITE.sut.ac.jp, path:
/.mirrors/SunSITE.unc.edu/academic/medicine/alternative-healthcare
/herbs/...

For Europeans there is a mirror site in the UK (sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk),
but I haven't been able to find the herbfiles there.

----- by Lawrence London ([email-masked]):

This document (Herb_Archives) is the 4-18-95 update of:
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/academic/medicine/alternative-healthcare/
  herbs/Herb_Archives
For more information contact [email-masked]
-----
Accessing Herb Archives at sunSITE
-----
World Wide Web (lynx available via telnet for vt100 users)
  URL Info:
  http://sunsite.unc.edu/london/Herb_Archives.html
  ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/academic/medicine/alternative-healthcare/
    herbs/
  gopher://sunsite.unc.edu/11/.pub/academic/medicine/alternative-
    healthcare/ herbs/

  ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/academic/agriculture/
    sustainable_agriculture/gardening/
  gopher://sunsite.unc.edu/11/.pub/academic/agriculture/
    sustainable_agriculture/gardening/

Gopher: gopher sunSITE.unc.edu or use URL, then go to these menus:
The Worlds of sunSITE
  browse sunSITE archives
    academic
      medicine
        alternative healthcare
          herbs
The Worlds of sunSITE
  Sustainable Agriculture Information
    gardening
  -or-
  browse sunSITE archives
    academic
      agriculture
        sustainable_agriculture
          gardening

Anonymous FTP:
  ftp sunSITE.unc.edu
  Login: anonymous
  Password: (enter your Internet E-Mail ID)
  cd pub/academic/medicine/alternative-healthcare/herbs
  cd pub/academic/agriculture/sustainable_agriculture/gardening

Ftpmail (Send e-mail to [email-masked] for helpfile on
ftpmail usage)

WAIS (also available by telnet; follow login instructions)

-----
Contents of Archives - 4/19/1995
-----

pub/academic/medicine/alternative-healthcare/
drwxr-xr-x  2 rmccaleb      512 Mar 14 10:21 Herb-Research-Foundation
drwxr-xr-x 10 london        512 Feb  1 21:57
                                Southwest-School-of-Botanical-Medicine
-----
The Southwest School of Botanical Medicine lists all of Michael
Moore's goodies:

While you're there, get the .jpg -pictures.  And have a good look
around the other goodies that are offered on site.

If you are not a beginner, get the big textfiles - Herbal Materia
Medica, Herbal Repertory, Herbal/Medical Dictionary, Herbal-Medical
Contraindications, Specific Indications, and Herbal Tinctures, and
anything else that might have been added.

These are summaries of how to prepare and use plants you already
know in ways you already know.

-----
Watch the Herb Research Foundation space - it just might get very
interesting very soon.
-----

pub/academic/medicine/alternative-healthcare/herbs/
-rw-r--r--  1 london       7358 Apr 19 12:35 Archive-INDEX
drwxr-xr-x  3 london       1024 Apr 19 11:50 Canadian-Society-for
   -Herbal-Research
-rw-r--r--  1 london       8431 Apr 14 15:28 GUIDE
drwxr-xr-x  2 london        512 Apr 19 12:47 Herb-Research-Foundation
-rw-r--r--  1 london       1971 Apr 19 12:59 Herb_Archives
-rw-r--r--  1 london        358 Apr 19 12:50 INDEX
drwxr-xr-x  6 london        512 Jan  5 07:03 LYSATOR-ftpsite
-rw-r--r--  1 london        118 Jan  4 13:58 README
lrwxrwxrwx  1 london         84 Apr 19 12:42 Southwest-School-of
   -Botanical-Medicine -> /pub/academic/medicine/alternative-
   healthcare/Southwest-School-of-Botanical-Medicine
drwxr-xr-x  5 london        512 Dec 30 21:19 discussion-groups
drwxr-xr-x  3 london        512 Apr  9 21:50 faqs
drwxr-xr-x  2 london       1536 Apr 19 11:33 literature
drwxr-xr-x  2 london       1024 Mar 27 22:57 mail-order
drwxr-xr-x  6 london       1024 Apr 19 12:06 miscellaneous-references
drwxr-xr-x  2 london        512 Apr 19 11:31 net-resources
drwxr-xr-x  2 london        512 Apr  6 00:07 newsletters
lrwxrwxrwx  1 london         59 Apr 19 12:50 sunSITE-General-Herb
   -Information -> /pub/academic/agriculture/sustainable_agriculture
   /gardening
-----
Under discussion-groups/alt.folklore.herbs/ you'll find the archives
for AFH.  Under faqs you'll find this one, one for other uses/
herbgrowing (herb-growing.faq), one for beginning herbfarmers
(herb-farming-guide.faq) and some others.

==========
7.2 Interesting WWW pages

-----
Herbal Hall, Rob Bidleman:
http://www.crl.com/~robbee/herbal.html
Nice surfing.

You can also get there by ftp:
ftp ftp.crl.com /users/ro/robbee/HERB.

-----
Natural Medicine, Complementary Health Care and Alternative Therapies,
hosted by AMR'TA:
http://www.teleport.com:80/~amrta
Nice surfing.

-----
Peter J.  Bower's www page on Complementary Practices:
http://galen.med.virginia.edu/~pjb3s/Complementary_Practices.html
Nice surfing.

----- ADDITION
Algy Krebbs' www page on herbs and gardening:
http://frank.mtsu.edu/~sward/herb.html
Nice surfing.

----- ADDITION
Genome database at NAL; the address is right but the site is busy:
http://probe.nalusda.gov:8300/
Start with the How-to and then check the Ethnobotanical and
Phytochemical databases...

----- ADDITION
Life Extension Foundation page with health related text and pointers:
http://www.webcom.com/~lef/
Nice surfing.

==========

Above are all the good internet sites on medicinal herbs that I
know about. If you find any else that are any good please let me
know and I'll include them in the next edition of the herbfaq.

Having fun,
HeK

--
Henriette Kress    [email-masked]
        Helsinki, Finland.