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Search Help

You may search for entities in Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases by keying one or more keywords into the provided input box and clicking on the Search button. Searches are performed across both databases for entities containing one or more of your keywords. Results are returned in order of relevance, i.e. how well they match your search terms. Alternatively, when you enter a few letters in the search box the program will use auto-complete to assist by producing a drop down menu, identifying items from the databases. You can scroll down the list of suggested entities and click on the one you want.

Keywords consist of terms from the following fields:

  • Biological activities -- activity name
  • Chemicals -- chemical name
  • Ethnobotanical use -- use name
  • Plants and Ethnobotanical plants -- genus, species, common name
  • Syndrome -- activity names

Asterisk (*) can be used as wildcard/truncation character at the end or front of a query string. Examples: cannabin* (in Chemicals) finds CANNABINOL, CANNABINEROLIC-ACID, CANNABINOL-MONOMETHYL-ETHER, CANNABINODIOL, CANNABINODIVARIN, CANNABINOL-METHYL-ETHER, CANNABINOIDS *fertility (in Ethnobotanical Uses) finds Antifertility, Fertility, Fertility(Female), Fertility(Veterinary), Infertilit

You may limit your search to an entity type by selecting from the dropdown list next to the search input box.

Search Results

Search results are ordered by how well an entity matches your search terms and are labelled by entity type.

Entity types for the Phytochemical Database are:

PPlant -- plants available in the Phytochemical database.

CChemical -- includes phytochemicals, chemicals and essential nutrients

ABiological Activity -- biological activities of chemicals found in a plant

SSyndrome -- so called 'super activities" denoted by a group of activities describing a condition or syndrome.

Entity types for the Ethnobotanical Database are:

EEthnobotany Plant -- plants available in the ethnobotanical database

UEthnobotany Use -- ethnobotanical use

Click on an entity name to view a detailed report.

Reports

Contents of a report will vary by entity type:

PPlant reports provide basic taxonomy information for a plant along with data about the chemicals and activities in the plant.

CChemical reports provide lists of plants and activities with which the chemical interacts

ABiological Activity -- reports provide data on the chemicals and plants associated with an activity

EEthnobotany Plant -- reports provide lists of uses, geographic range and references for a plant in the Ethnobotanical database

UEthnobotany Use -- provides lists of plants associated with a use in the Ethnobotanical database

Lists included in a report may be sorted by clicking on the data table's column headers. For example, to order a list of chemicals in a Plants report by concentration (PPM), click on the "High PPM" or "Low PPM" columns. To limit a result set (Filter) by specific plant part (e.g. Flower, Root, Seed, Leaf, Stem, etc.), click the menu with down arrow in the Part column header, and select the part of interest from the list.

Data may be downloaded as a comma-separated values (CSV), Excel or a PDF file by clicking on the desired fromat next to icon. In addition, an entity report in PDF format may be downloaded by clicking the icon next to the entity name at the top of the page.

Cross-Reference to Queries in the Legacy System

To assist users of the legacy web site, the table below provides some help in mapping queries in the legacy system to functionality in this system.

PPlant Searches
Query in Old System Comparable Action in this system
Chemicals and activities in a particular plant search and select a particular Plant entity then review chemical or activities lists
High concentration chemicals The number of standard deviations for the high PPM is now included as a column in the chemicals list. You may sort of the list on this column to easily and quickly determine which chemicals are "high concentration" for a plant part.
Chemicals with one activity Search and select a particular Plant entity then review list of chemicals by sorting
Ethnobotanical uses search and select a particular Ethnobotanical Plant (review list of Uses)
List chemicals and activities for a plant search and select a particular Plant entity then review chemical or activities lists
CChemical Searches
Query in Old System Comparable Action in this system
Plants with a chosen chemical search and select a particular chemical then review list of plants
Activities of a chosen chemical search and select a particular chemical then review list of activities
List of activites and plants for a chemical search and select a particular Chemical entity then review list of plants or activities
List common activities (synergies) for a list of chemicals (TBD)
AActivity Searches
Query in Old System Comparable Action in this system
Plants with a specific activity search and select a particular Activity entity then review list of plants
Search for plants with several activities  (TBD)
Chemicals with a specific activity search and select a particular Activity entity then review list of chemicals
Lethal dose (LD) information for a chemical search and select a particular chemical then look for Lethal Dose info
Search for plants/chemicals with one or more activities search and select a particular Activity entity then review plants or chemicals lists
Search for plants/chemicals with a superactivity search and select a particular Syndrome entity then review list of plants or chemicals
EEthnobotany searches
Query in Old System Comparable Action in this system
Ethnobotanical uses for a particular plant search and select a particular Ethnobotanical Plant entity then review Use list
Plants with a particular ethnobotanical use search and select a particular Ethnobotanical Use entity then review Plant list