Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM): Herbs, Medicinal Plants, & Supplements

The Dietary Supplements Labels Database offers information about ingredients in more than three thousand selected brands of dietary supplements. It enables users to determine what ingredients are in specific brands and to compare ingredients in different brands. Information is also provided on the health benefits claimed by manufacturers.

The FNIC web site has information on dietary topics, food composition, and dietary supplements.

"The IBIDS database provides access to bibliographic citations and abstracts from published, international, and scientific literature on dietary supplements. IBIDS is a collaboration between two US government agencies: the Office of Dietary Supplements of the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) of the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Agricultural Library (NAL)."

A number of resources designed for the consumer are available, including: what are dietary supplements, safety notices, DRI & RDA, factsheets on supplements, and links for additional information.
Special Features: International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements database (IBIDS) provides access to bibliographic citations and abstracts from published, international, scientific literature on dietary supplements.

This section on the U.S. Pharmacopeia web site has a list of USP verified dietary supplements and information on the verification process.

ABC's mission is to "provide education using science-based and traditional information to promote responsible use of herbal medicine — serving the public, researchers, educators, health care professionals, industry and media."

HSA seeks to educate its members and the general public about how herbs are used and their historical use.

HerbMed® unique herbal database of research citations and other links that provide 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.

The task force is a cooperative effort of the staff and students from Children’s Hospital, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

MedlinePlus is resource for accurate and authoritative consumer health information on the internet. Links to resources are grouped into categories including: latest news, from the National Institutes of Health, clinical trials, information on specific conditions, and others. In addition to links for a variety of resources, a link directly to a MEDLINE search.

This web site allows users to search for information on herbs which includes adverse effects, interactions, and more.

"NaturalHerbsGuide.com is a non-commercial, evidence-based, natural herbs and herbal remedies information site who's sole purpose is to help consumers learn more about helpful natural herbs, herbal remedies, and herbal medicines."

Website provides information on the basics of Chinese medicine, including information on herbs.

This free database "holds more than 1.8 million plant type specimens—the authoritative records for plant species that are catalogued in herbaria around the world—along with their scientific names and classifications. It also includes complementary material such as paintings, photographs and the correspondence of explorers who originally discovered and collected various species."

This free database from the University of Michigan-Dearborn has information on plants used as drugs, foods, dyes, fibers, and more,by native Peoples of North America.

The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories.

The PRELUDE database concerns the use of plants in different traditional veterinarian and human medicines in Africa.

Raintree is dedicated to providing accurate and factual information on the important plants of the Amazon Rainforest, therefore this section of the Raintree web site is the most extensive. This Tropical Plant Database is continuously under construction as we continue to add more rainforest plants which are under research and update the information on the plants in the database.

This website was constructed as an effort to present the taxonomic aspects of the project through the dissemination of images of the plants being investigated in this Transcriptome Project. Additionally, it serves to link to our various progresses, and to the evolving versions of transcriptome data analysis that we are generating. Thus, more specifically, this website serves as a link between the transcriptome data and the plant species being investigated through the voucher herbarium specimens in deposit at the John G. Searle Herbarium of the Field Museum, Chicago. These specimens serve as evidence of the organisms being investigated, while also enriching the scientific contents of the Field Museum's collection holding, both botanically and biochemically. The living collections of these plants, maintained in the greenhouse of the University of Illinois Pharmacognosy Field Station in Downer's Grove, IL, and at the Dorothy Bradley Atkins Medicinal Plants Garden at the College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago, similarly serve as evidence of the plants being investigated, while also serving as a continuing source of raw materials for future studies.