Native American Herbal, Plant Knowledge

zeroing in on the plant (should know its official botannical name for better results than

&qut;common name" searching). The first output will be a clickable list of biochemical

components, Click on any one of those chemical names and it will tell you bodily effects

(if known).Below that will be a listing of all species containing some amount of the

chemical you just clicked on--sorted only by plantname, not by order of amounts of the

chemical, unfortunately. Nicely formatted tables telling where (leaves, flowers, fruit,

seeds, entire-plant), as well as what and how much in that plant. There are several other

Table options. This database is both exciting and frustrating. The frustration stems from

not being able to evaluate the quality of its data -- when were the analyses made? by

whom? under what conditions were the plant(s) grown?

AGIS: Database: EthnobotDB--This database lets you ask "for any included tribe, what

all plants did they use for anything?" and get a clickable list (often very long) back. Or

you can go in by disease or ailment and ask "What all plants do all tribes use as cancer

remedies?" It is not limited to North American Indians -- you can see if a variant species

was used in Africa, Asia, or Europe, too.

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AGIS: EcoSys--EcoSystems is the most recent ethnobotanical AGIS database to have

been created (Oct. '95), containing just over 800 plants. At present it doesn't have their

habitats, interactions of cycles with those of other inhabitants, etc., just a list of

temperature, water, and soil conditions each needs -- possibly useful to figure out ranges

or plan for trying to grow them. Obviously they would like to expand this database, if

government support and personnel cuts were to permit.

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Overview: After working extensively with these databases I conclude that no knowledgeable

native people have been substantially involved in either the government or the University projects.

The AGIS project has the greatest practical value, but its structure and contents right now reflect

a design oriented to the needs of medical drug companies, the agriculture industry, and their

researchers. There are indications by fund and personnel cutbacks that the "native plants"

project has low priority with U.S. budgetmakers, hence with USDA. Native awareness of this

project and its potential uses is a first step to getting both better support and more functionality

from the viewpoint of our own potential uses for this kind of info tool.

Native American Herbal, Plant Knowledge

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