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(Austin, TX. April 28, 2006) Researchers, clinicians, journalists and others wishing to access the extensive scientific and clinical literature about herbal medicine and related subjects now have access to one of the best research tools available. The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) has announced the availability of its highly respected NAPRALERT database on the Internet effective April 26. The site is available at www.napralert.org.
NAPRALERT, the world’s largest database on herbs and medicinal plant research, contains information from over 200,000 published studies in the field of natural products covering numerous related scientific disciplines. These papers represent research on plants and animals from all countries of the world, including marine organisms, plus the geographic origin from where they were obtained.
The name NAPRALERT is an acronym for “Natural Products Alert”, the original intention of the database being to compile a collection of the world’s scientific literature on natural products used for health purposes and the development of new medications. Most, but not all, of the natural products included in the database are herbs and botanically-derived ingredients and phytochemicals.
According to Professor Norman R. Farnsworth, Research Professor of Pharmacognosy and Senior University Scholar at UIC, “NAPRALERT is a relational database of all natural products, including a wide range of research on ethnomedical information, pharmacological and biochemical information of extracts of animal and plant organisms. The research includes in vitro (experimental laboratory) studies, in vivo (animal studies), human case reports and non-clinical trials related to human use, and controlled and uncontrolled human clinical trials. Similar information is available for secondary metabolites [naturally occurring chemicals in plants and animals] from natural sources.”
In 1975 Prof. Farnsworth and his colleagues at UIC began a systematic search of the scientific and clinical literature by examining every journal pertinent to natural products in the UIC Health Science Library. Years later they began viewing the Table of Contents of a large number of journals from the Internet on a regular (monthly) basis. These journals were selected from a list of journals that historically the UIC researchers knew contained pertinent data for the NAPRALERT system. In addition, relevant sections of Chemical Abstracts, particularly the Biochemistry Section, was examined for articles not found in the UIC Library sources and original articles were obtained via Interlibrary Loans.
Prof. Farnsworth added, “We are fortunate also to have many foreign journals in which articles are rarely found through the usually accessible natural product scientific literature sources.”
According to Farnsworth NAPRALERT’s coverage of the literature is comprehensive from at least 1975 through and including 2003. Due to budget restrictions, the researchers were able to include only about 15 percent of the relevant botanical and natural product literature from 2004 and 2005. Articles are currently being collected and it is hoped that they eventually will be included in the revised database.
“This is a real bonus to the herb research community,” said Mark Blumenthal, Founder and Executive Director of the American Botanical Council, an independent, nonprofit research and education organization in Austin, Texas (www.herbalgram.org). “For many years, we have relied on the NAPRALERT database for many of our research needs. It has been a unique and most valuable educational and research resource, often pointing us to papers that were not available anywhere else. Now that NAPRALERT is available on the Internet, the world of medicinal plant research just became bigger and easier.”
During the past 30 years NAPRALERT’s primary clients have been universities, the Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization, foreign governments, and other research and educational institutions. The new Internet accessibility will allow individuals enhanced access to the data in the unique database.
NAPRALERT Composition
About 25 percent of the NAPRALERT database is derived from abstracts (short summaries of research) and 75 percent from original articles. In the past the UIC researchers have had the occasion to acquire complete literature on about 250 genera of plants and these data appear in NAPRALERT. The earliest papers date as far back as the late 1800's.
NAPRALERT’s coverage of the scientific literature is extremely comprehensive, especially in the following areas of research:
* Clinical studies of natural products (including safety)
* Natural products that affect sugar metabolism
* Natural products that affect mammalian reproduction
* Extracts and compounds that affect cancer growth
* Natural products and antiviral (including HIV/AIDS) activity
* Natural products and antitubercular activity
* Natural products and tropical diseases
* Ethnomedical information on more than 20,000 species of plants
* Metabolism and pharmacokinetics
* Natural products that affect plant growth
* Biosynthesis of natural products
* Review articles on organisms at the genus and/or species levels
and reviews of secondary metabolites (citations only)
* Chemoprevention (cancer prevention) with natural products
* Natural insecticides
* Anti-inflammatory activity of natural products
* Analgesic activity of natural products.
The UIC notes that when a visitor to the NAPRALERT site is seeking information on biological activity categories, there are many closely related biological targets that might relate to a single endpoint. If visitors cannot retrieve biological data on an activity that they desire, they are urged to contact the NAPRALERT team by e-mail (ushab@uic.edu) and someone will attempt to provide assistance.
Free sample searches are available on the NAPRALERT site on the Internet to show the types of information available.
[Editor’s note: The American Botanical Council (ABC) has issued this press release as a service to NAPRALERT and the University of Illinois to help ensure that more participants in the botanical medicine community receive this information.]
About the American Botanical Council
ABC is an independent, member-based, nonprofit research and education organization in Austin, Texas. Established in 1988, the American Botanical Council (ABC) is the leading nonprofit, member-based international organization working to educate consumers, healthcare professionals, researchers, educators, industry, and the media on the safe and effective use of herbs and medicinal plant products. Located on a 2.5 acre site in Austin, Texas, ABC is the publisher of HerbalGram, a peer-reviewed quarterly journal and The ABC Clinical Guide to Herbs, a continuing education and reference book, which contains extensive monographs on the safety and efficacy of 29 popular herbs. More information is available at http://www.herbalgram.org/.
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