New York Flora Association Blog

From: Ernie Small & Paul M. Catling

Our book [Small, E. and Catling, P.M. 1999. _Canadian medicinal crops_. NRC
Press, Ottawa. 250 p.

CLICK HERE for the website.

This website is a comprehensive reference guide to important medicinal lants that are native to Canada. Chapters feature species such as ginseng, echinacea, Pacific yew, goldenseal, cascara, witch hazel, and kelp. The explosive interest in herbal products that provide medicinal or health benefits has resulted in a need for information. As well as being vitally important to the public and merchants, medicinal plant information is crucial to farmers, economists, teachers, the pharmaceutical industry, and the medical arts professions. Canada has the potential to capitalize on tremendous global marketing opportunities. We are in an excellent position to take advantage of the rapidly expanding market for so-called “nutraceutical crops” (those that are used to produce substances that are both medicinal and nutritional), because many of these are native to Canada and grow well here. This website meets the need for an overview of available information. The user can quickly find details on a particular topic by  examining the categories of information, which include: scientific, English and French names, description and classification, medicinal uses, non-medicinal uses, toxicity, chemistry, importance, ecology, agricultural and commercial aspects, human interest information, and selected key literature. All species are extensively illustrated and distribution maps are included. Introductory chapters address such topics as: the business of growing medicinal plants; the regulatory and legal framework in Canada for producing and marketing medicinal plants; and hazards associated with medicinal plants. Also provided are: an extensive glossary of medicinal and pharmacological terms; and extensive general list of books, review articles and research articles related to Canadian medicinal plants. The increased availability of this information is both important to the agriculture sector and of broad, general interest.

This entry was posted on May 1, 2012 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Publications, Apps, and Websites. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.