Herbal Medicine: Internet Resources: Alternative Medicine

• AGRICOLA (AGRICultural OnLine Access): access to bibliographic data on how to grow herbs and medicinal plants and includes references from The Herb Research Foundations' HerbalGram
• American Botanical Council: educating the public on the use of herbs and phytomedicinals
• The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia: produce authoritative herbal monographs containing accurate, critically reviewed information on botanicals which can provide guidance in the appropriate use of herbal therapeutics"
• American Herbal Products Association: promotes the responsible commerce of products which contain herbs
• American Herbalists Guild : "only peer-review organization for professional herbalists specializing in the medicinal use of plants"
• American Society of Pharmacognosy : "dedicated to the promotion, growth, and development not only of pharmacognosy but all aspects of those sciences related to and dealing in natural products" includes graduate program information and journals
• Botanical Medicine Information Resources: Rosenthal Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, New York: links to databases, journals, mailing lists, regulatory information
• Botanical Society of America: information on plant research
• Botanical.com: a Modern Herbal by Mrs. M. Grive: "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"
• British Herbal Medicine Association (BHMA) "advance the science and practice of herbal medicine in the United Kingdom"
• The California School of Traditional Hispanic Herbalism, Richmand, California: " to teach and preserve the healing traditions of the Hispanic curanderos and curanderas (folk healers) of California"
• Chinese Herbal Sciences, Rocky Mountain Herbal Institute (RMHI)
• ConsumerLab.com : independent teting of herbs and health & nutrition products for purity, potency, bioavailability, and consistency and gives an approved quality seal
• Creating an Herbal Apothecary: An Implementation Guide: Speical Report from the publishers of Strategic Health Care Marketing
• Cyberbotanica: Plants and Cancer Treatments, maintained by Lucy A. Snyder : "plants and chemotherapy (also still under construction), but other chapters are in the works: plants used in bioremediation, fungi which produce antibiotics, and genetically engineered fruits and vegetables".
• Ethnobotanical Resource Directory: extensive links to "information on useful plants (food, medicine, material for textiles, etc.) and harmful plants (plant pathology, poisonous plants, weeds)"
• EthnoMedicinals.com, Anthony R. Torkelson, Ph. D., Research Scientist, Department of Pharmacokinetics, Bioanalytical, and Radiochemistry, G.D. Searle Research and Development: "information on the use of herbs and other natural products in biochemistry, pharmacology, and traditional medicine"
• European Herbal and Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association: representing professional herbalists throughout Europe, regulatory & legislative information, global herbal information and herbal efficacy & safety information
• European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy (ESCOP): Publications
• Flower Essence Society: "promote plant research and empirical clinical research on the therapeutic effects of flower essences"
• The Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory (“GEM”) Study, University of Pittsburgh, sponsored by the National Center for Complementray and Alternative Medicine, the National Institute on Aging, & the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
• The Ginkgo Pages by Cor Kwant
• Henriette's Herbal Homepage: faqs, pictures, archives and links by Henriette Kress.
• Herb Associations-International and United States, HerbNET: good directory of associations and organizations
• Herb Research Foundation: nonprofit research and educational organization focusing on herbs and medicinal plants. With the American Botanical Council publishes HerbalGram and maintains Herb World News Online includes research reviews and world, science, industry and political news
• Herb Society (United Kingdom): "educational charity dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge about the healing properties of herbs & their use in the community and the support of further research into the healing properties of herbs"
• Herbal ADR: PhytoNet's place to file an adverse reaction to a phytomedicine or herbal remedy [must request registeration login and password]
• Herbal Medicine, Medlineplus, National Library of Medicine
• HerbDotCom: Home of the Professional Herbalists Discussion List
• HerbMed™ - " herbal database – provides hyperlinked access to the scientific data underlying the use of herbs for health. It is an evidence-based information resource for professionals, researchers and general public, project of the Alternative Medicine Foundation"
• Longwood Herbal Task Force: The Herbs and Supplements monographs and clinician information from Children's Hospital, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Bostom Massachusetts
• Medherb.com, from Medical Herbalism: A Clinical Journal for the Herbal Practitioner: great links and resources
• Medicinal Herb FAQ for the alt.folklore.herbs newsgroup, FAQ Keeper: Henriette Kress.
• Medicinal Herb Garden at the University of Washington, Seattle, a resource of images for herbalists, medics, and botanists at all levels.
• Medicinal Plant Seeds also has Chinese and Vietnamese Herbal Healing Plants: Seedman.com: Southern Business Express Seed Division
• Medicinal and Poisonous Plant Databases, Michael C. Tims: taxonomy, biochemistry and uses
• Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center New York, New York: Information Resource: About Herbs, Botanicals & Other Products: "objective information for oncologists and healthcare professionals, including a clinical summary for each agent and details about constituents, adverse effects, interactions, and potential benefits or problems"
• A Mini-Course in MEDICAL BOTANY SYLLABUS , James A. Duke, Ethnobotanist
• Missouri Botanical Garden Library Rare Book Digitization Project,: includes Köhler's Medizinal Pflanzen "300 finely detailed illustrations, expertly drawn by the artists L. Müeller and C.F. Schmidt...from the botanical standpoint the finest and most useful series of illustrations of medicinal plants...site was created from slides taken by Dr. James Zarucchi"
• Monographs
  • American Herbal Pharmacopoeia
  • British Herbal Compendium
  • European Scientific Cooperative on Phytomedcines (ESCOP): publications
  • German Commission E Monographs
  • Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China: official and authoritative compendium of drugs, covering traditional Chinese medicines, western medicines and preparations: giving information on the standards of purity, description, test, dosage, precaution, and the strength for each drug
  • United States Pharmacopoeia (USP): USP Verified Dietary Supplements
  • World Health Organization : technical document WHO Monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants
• The Mycological Society of America: "the study of fungi including mushrooms, truffles, yeasts, lichens, plant pathogens and medically importanrt fungi"
• Natural Products Association: "represents the interests of some 3,000 retailers and 1,000 manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of health foods, dietary supplements, natural ingredient cosmetics and other natural products": maintains "industry's only self-regulatory testing program, which fosters quality assurance"
• New York Botanical Garden: Continuing Education: offers a variety of classes on herbs and medicinal plant research
• Phytotherapies.org free service to individuals registering with the site, "sponsored by Herbworx Corporation, an Australian company dedicated to ensuring that practitioners are supplied not only with high quality herbal medicine, but also clinically relevant, scientifically validated technical information, and Phytomedicine, manufacturer quality herbal extracts for practitioners." Even though it is a commercial service the herbal mongraph database contains indications, actions, constituents, studies & articles.
• Questions and Answers: A Trial of St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) for the Treatment of Major Depression, National Institutes of Health, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• The Society for Economic Botany: established to "encourage scientific research in the past, present and future uses of plants"
• Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences: leading organization in drug discovery in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)
• Southwest School of Botanical Medicine Home Page: Albuquerque, New Mexico: links to herb resources, medicinal plant images, botanical and medical glossary and information on this school.
• Spices Exotic Flavors and Medicines, History and Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library: descriptions, history, medicinal properities, and historical view of individual spices
• Tang Center for Herbal Medicine Research, University of Chicago: investigate efficacy and safety of medicinal herbs and other dietary supplements supported by world-wide collaborations"
• Tropical Plant Database:"authored and maintained by Ms. Leslie Taylor and much of the information contained herein can be found in her book, Herbal Secrets of the Rainforest, from Prima Publishing, Inc."
• World Health Organization's Regulatory Situation of Herbal Medicines A Worldwide Review (this is a pdf file and requires adobe acrobat)

Revision: January 2008.

For additions or comments please respond to "The Alternative Medicine Homepage" ©1994-2008. Charles B. Wessel, M.L.S., cbw@pitt.edu - Falk Library of the Health Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261

Graphic Design : Paul Worona, M.L.I.S.