Native American Herbal, Plant Knowledge

USING THE ETHNOBOTANY PLANT CHEMICALS DATABASE

Clicking PhytochemDB appearing at the top of each of my

phytochemicals tables will take you onto the U.S. National

Agricultural Laboratory's database of native plant chemicals, for

their explanation of their database. There you can do your own

tabulations using their table maker options. Explore first with the

guidance of my table-pages.

Numbers are reported in ppm or parts-per-million. High and low reflect

different analyses done on different plants in different growing conditions. Where

no numbers are reported, but a phyto (meaning plant) chemical is listed, either no

numbers were available, or the NAL data people didn't trust them as comparable

to the ones they do include. The substance may have been present in traces, but

most likely the reports they found simply reported it as present.

Another interpretive caution: these tables report contents for

fruit, seeds, often for leaves, occasionally for flowers. The other

parts category is just "plant". No way to tell if the whole plant

actually was mooshed up and analyzed or if what parts were

analyzed for this particular chemical just weren't specified. Either

way, roots, bark, and suchlike noty only asre diffrent but

generally require special preparation for any human consumption -- medical or

nutrient. It is strongly recommended you not fool around with roots or bark unless

someone who definitely knows what they are doing shows you how! I again

emphasize that this knowledge is not an automatic acquisition of age. In other

words, most old persons don't know anything about it, and most of them will tell

you so, but there are some poisonous fakes around here and there. Who know

nothing but will tell you their notions of what to do.

Too, many years ago I met a Menominee witch. She had quite a specialty in

poisons, and she wasn't any nice old lady, misunderstood by all (as I had rather

dopily thought) either. I had sense enough not to eat or drink any of the things she

was cheerfully offering me, because it was rapidly obvious to me that she was Bad.

In my table, the chemicals are "active". Click on any and you

will fly off to the NAL Informatics group server. You will first see

USDA plant table notes

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