Huge information could be accessed through Internet. This tool enables search and download of any kind of information. We should spend some time to get familiar with Internet to speed up communication and improve our information level.
Knowledge of medicine and other sciences is ever growing. Internet has unleashed a goldmine for academicians, researchers and practitioners. Traditional knowledge has great source of information, which could be searched through various search engines.
Knowledge of information collection, research work and published research papers is a starting of any research work. The requirement of Ayurvedic researchers and students could be fulfilled with Internet search. This article covers information on following aspects:
- Open search sources
- Dictionaries
- Sanskrit and Indian language related database or software
- Organisations working on traditional medicinal knowledge
- Information on medicinal plants (e.g. monographs, uses of plants etc.)
- Research journals (Indian and International journals)
- Searchable databases (Biomedical, Herbal, Patents related databases)
- Subscription based databases
The information compiled in this article is an example of how a researcher can search required information. The features and web address presented here might change; hence readers are advised to search latest information and update themselves.
Open search sources
General search:
Any key word could be searched through following search engines:
Out of these Google search engine is most popular and using following tools are helpful for advanced scientific search.
Google Scholar: for search of scientific papers.
Google Alerts: we can get news and search results via email.
Google Books: for search of full text of books.
Other tools could be selected as per requirements.
Dictionaries:
- Online medical dictionary: http://www.online-medical-dictionary.org/
- Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon from Monier-Williams’ ‘Sanskrit-English Dictionary: http://webapps.uni-koeln.de/tamil/
- Web Sanskrit Dictionary based on “The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary” of Vaman Shivaram Apte: http://aa2411s.aa.tufs.ac.jp/~tjun/sktdic/
Language software:
- Products developed by C-DAC for multi-lingual technologies: http://www.cdac.in/html/mlingual.asp
- Word processing application for Indian languages: http://www.baraha.com
Sanskrit websites:
- Software on Sanskrit grammar based on the sutras of Pan`ini: http://www.taralabalu.org/panini
- Various information related to Sanskrit:
- Compilation of Sanskrit documents: http://sanskrit.gde.to
Information on medicinal plants
www.herbalnet.org
It is related to knowledge network for medicinal plants and national centre for training and technology transfer. This is authentic collection of information based on work done by Regional Research Laboratory, Jammu
www.herbs.org
The Herb Research Foundation is the world’s first and foremost source of accurate, science-based information on the health benefits and safety of herbs
Plants for future is a resource center for rare and unusual plants, particularly those that have edible, medicinal or other uses.
A Guide to Medicinal and Aromatic Plants : This website provides technical assistance in search for sound scientific information about medicinal, spice and aromatic plants, and in particular be of benefit in the introduction and production of these unique and fascinating specialty crops and natural plant products.
American Botanical Council: It gives us up to date knowledge on what is happening in the herbal medicine field by reading the news, where we post press releases and other timely news items
http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/D_intro.html
Plants for a Future: From Leeds University, UK, the Species Database contains nearly 7000 plants, either edible, have medicinal properties or have some other use such as fibers, oils or soaps.
http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/index.html
Poisonous Plants Informational Database: Reference resource from Cornell University that includes plant images, pictures of affected animals, presentations of the botany, chemistry, toxicology, diagnosis and prevention of poisoning of animals by plants and other natural flora.
http://rain-tree.com/plants.htm
Tropical Plant Database:Each plant file contains taxonomy data, phytochemical and ethno botanical data, uses in traditional medicine, and clinical research.
http://www.herbs.org/index.html
Herb Research Foundation: HRF provide a search service from their specialty research library containing more than 300,000 scientific articles on thousands of herbs.
http://www.naturaldatabase.com
Natural Medicines: Large collection of monographs aimed at medical professionals.
Natural Standard: Monographs compiled by a multidisciplinary team.
http://www.bastyr.edu/library/bibliographies/botmcore.htm
Bibliography from Bastyr University: A collection of citations from the literature on herbals from the Bastyr library. The categorized listing is extensive and also cites the journals used for the compilation.
http://www.cathayherbal.com/library/index.htmCathay Herbal Library: Collection of articles on Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine for western doctors and TCM practitioners from the Cathay Herbal Laboratories Education Department.
European Phytojournal: Official newsletter of ESCOP, the European Scientific Cooperative on phototherapy.
http://www.weizmann.ac.il/InfoUnit/F.html
Fitoterapia: Phytotherapy journal published by Elsevier Science for Indena, Italy, a private company specializing in botanical derivatives for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. Abstracts available. Click on Fitoterapia.
http://pubs3.acs.org/acs/journals/cover_art.page?incoden=jnprdf
Journal of Natural Products: Joint publication of the American Chemical Society and the American Society of Pharmacognosy, for natural product chemists, biochemists, taxonomists, ecologists, and pharmacologists.
http://www.medherb.com/MHHOME.SHTML
Medical Herbalism: A full text clinical newsletter for the herbal practitioner.
Medical Journals:
Most of peer reviewed medical journal could be accessed online. Many of these journals send Table of Contents if we register on respective sites. Thus we can get latest information in our mailbox.
- Biomedical Journals of India: http://medind.nic.in
One point resource of peer reviewed Indian biomedical literature covering full text of more than 35 journals. - Journal of Association of physicians of India: www.japi.org
- Journal of post graduate medicines: http://www.jpgmonline.com
- Journal of Postgraduate Medicine: multidisciplinary quarterly biomedical journal is one of the oldest medical journals from India. The journal is official publication of the Staff Society of Seth G. S. Medical College and K. E. M. Hospital, Mumbai, India.
- Indian Journal of Medical Research: http://icmr.nic.in/ijmr/ijmr.htm
- Indian journal of medical sciences: http://www.indianjmedsci.org
- Indian Journal of Pharmacology www.ijp-online.com
- Pharmacological reviews http://pharmrev.aspetjournals.org
- Journal of Experimental Biology http://jeb.biologists.org
- Research in Biostatistics http://biostatistics.oupjournals.org
- Health Education Researchhttp://her.oxfordjournals.org
- Journal of Public Health http://jpubhealth.oxfordjournals.org
- Journal of Tropical Pediatrics http://tropej.oxfordjournals.org
- Journal of Ethnopharmacology: http://www.ethnopharmacology.org
- The Lancet: www.thelancet.com
- British Medical Journal: www.bmj.com
- Journal of American Medical Association: http://jama.ama-assn.org/
- New England Journal of Indian Medicine: www.nejm.com
Along with research articles, this journal also publishes audio visual information. - European Journal of Public Health: http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org
It is a multidisciplinary journal in the field of public health, publishing contributions from social medicine, epidemiology, health services research, management, ethics and law, health economics, social sciences and environmental health - American Journal of Epidemiology: http://ije.oxfordjournals.org
It is the premier epidemiological journal devoted to the publication of empirical research findings, methodological developments in the field of epidemiological research.
Biomedical databases:
Following structured databases are available online. We can get huge information (abstracts) using these databases.
- PubMed: Biomedical journal related database: http://www.pubmed.com
This is national library of medicine’s search interface to access the 10 million citations in MEDLINE, and Pre-MEDLINE, and other related databases. - Science Direct: www.sciencedirect.com
Information related to medical journals it contains science, technology and medicine full text and bibliographic information. - Scopus: www.scopus.com
Scopus is the large abstract and citation database of research literature and quality web sources. - HerbMed: http://www.herbmed.org
Categorized, evidence-based resource for herbal information, with hyperlinks to clinical and scientific publications and dynamic links for automatic updating, produced by the nonprofit Alternative Medicine Foundation. - IBDS: http://ods.od.nih.gov/showpage.aspx?pageid=48
International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements (IBIDS) is a database of published, international, scientific literature on dietary supplements, including vitamins, minerals, and botanicals, produced by the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health. - LIGAND Database:http://www.genome.ad.jp/htbin/www_bfind?ligand
Ligand chemical database from GenomeNet, Kyoto University. This is searchable database for chemical compounds.
Patents related database
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html
The US Patent and Trademark Office full-text and full-page image database includes many entries related to botanical medicine.
www.espacenet.com
European patents related database.
Subscription-based data:
American Botanical Council:ABC member benefits include access to Herb Clip Online, Complete German Commission E Monographs, and Clinical Guide to Herbs.
Caution:
Identification of an authentic site is necessary in any Internet based search. One should cross check the validity of references obtained from sites other than reputed databases or journals. In case of any ambiguity or controversy published matter is generally considered authentic.
If e-commerce is associated with any site for online monetary transactions then be cautious to provide your bank details on the form. In such cases be sure that the URL of the page (that accepts the information for the actual transaction) starts with the HTTPS,
eg. https://www.herbsonline.com/onlinebuy.aspx. This ensures that the information sent to and fro with the server is encrypted or safe for transaction.
Last updated on March 9th, 2021 at 05:31 am