Database of Biologically Active Phytochemicals & Their Activity

James A. Duke

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781000673265
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Database of Biologically Active Phytochemicals and Their Activities presents an alphabetical tabulation of some 3,000 biologically active phytochemicals (elements and compounds) from higher plants. The data includes at least one and in some cases as many as 25 biological activities for each phytochemical. The database also provides data on effective dose, inhibitory concentrations, and lethal and/or toxic doses. Entries after 1990 indicate the source of the data.  Database of Biologically Active Phytochemicals and Their Activities makes it possible to locate the concentration of many compounds in plants and compare this data with dosage information to calculate how much of a given plant food it would take to cause lethality, antioxidant activity, hypoglycemic activity, or artemicidal activity. Using WordPerfect (TM) 5.1's search function, you can find compounds by entering a key word in their name (e.g., choline or salicyl-), locate all compounds with a given activity (e.g., hypotensive), or list all compounds for which ED50 data is entered or reported.

Introduction

Some jobs never come to an end. That’s the way CRC s Harvey Kane and I feel about this one. But when I showed him how useful this compilation could be, used either as hard copy or database, he thought it was time CRC published the first installment, before it became too unwieldy. This compilation contains most, if not all of the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) herbs, and many medicinally important foods (GRAF or generally recognized as food). The compilation also contains and about 500 strictly medicinal plants (GRAP or generally recognized as poisonous or medicinal species) for which I found interesting data. All told, about 1,000 plants are covered in the Handbook or Database of Phytochemical Constituents of GRAS Herbs and Other Economic Plants and about 3,000 compounds are treated in the Handbook or Database of Biologically Active Phytochemicals and Their Activities. In collaboration with Drs. C. Rose Broome and James L. Reveal of the University of Maryland, I used their computer facility and a remote terminal at home to compile data on phytochemicals reported for various plants, concentrating on these GRAS and GRAF herbs. I termed these databases Father Nature’s Farmacy, and under this copyrighted name, early entries were published in HerbalGram, the Education Publication of the American Botanical Council and the Herb Research Foundation.

I consulted five major sources when trying to determine if a plant is generally recognized as food.

1. Facciola, S., Cornucopia: A Source Book of Edible Plants, Kampong Publications, Vista, CA, 1990.
2. Hedrick, U. P., Ed., Sturtevan’s Edible Plants of the World, Dover Publications Reprint (1972), New York, 1919.
3. Kunkel, G., Plants for Human Consumption, Koeltz Science Publishers, Koenigstein, Germany, 1984.
4. Tanaka, T., Tanaka’s Cyclopedia of Edible Plants of the World, Keigaku Publishing Co., Tokyo, 1976.
5. Yanovsky, E., Food Plants of the North American Indians, USDA Misc. Publ. No. 237, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1936.

Unfortunately, some plants like the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, fall into all three categories of this newly recognized triad of acronyms, GRAF, GRAP, and GRAS. Poppy seeds are clearly GRAF (generally recognized as food), and are widely eaten in pastries, for example. From the GRAP (generally recognized as poisonous or medicinal) point of view, dried latex of the poppy (opium) and its derivative alkaloids, e.g., codeine and morphine, are poisonous yet very important medicinally. I really think GRAM (generally recognized as medicinal) would have made a better acronym, but all medicines are poisonous; it’s just a matter of dosage. Poppy seeds are (or at least once were) a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) spice or culinary additive to foods. The Herb Research Foundation (Rob McCaleb, President, Suite 200F, 1007 Pearl Street, Boulder, Colorado 80302) has a computerized list of GRAS herbs as things were interpreted in the 1980s. Recently, however, one cannot get a definitive opinion on whether an herb is GRAS or not. Such classification is always open to review, according to my interpretation of the latest FDA edicts. If you can get a copy of an intelligible GRAS list from the FDA, I’ll gladly exchange a revised computerized Database of Biologically Active Phytochemicals for a copy. In spite of several letters, I have been unable to procure from FDA an FDA-revised GRAS list, so accurately classifying an herb as GRAS can be like trying to hit a moving target. And the latest list I have is from the Herb Research Foundation, not the FDA.

Apples are GRAF and apple extracts are GRAS, but the cyanide in the seeds is GRAP. A lot of people eat shoots of pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) in spring (even though poisonings sometimes ensue). Hence, parboiled pokeweed shoots are GRAF. Pokeweed antiviral proteins or mitogens are GRAP but have important medicinal potential. There are probably carcinogens, mutagens, and poisons, as well as anticarcinogens, antimutagens, and antidotes in all GRAF, GRAP, and GRAS species. Thus assigning the species treated herein, or plant parts thereof, to one or the other category could be more controversial than constructive or instructive. In these litigious times, the reader is reminded that every species treated herein contains poisonous compounds and that all the biologically active phytochemicals can be considered poisonous; again, it’s a matter of dosage.

Early in the project, I systematically scanned some major references (AYL, BML, CCO, CRC, GEO, HHB, JAD, JEL, JFM, MPI, USA, WBB and WOI, see list of abbreviations below), not always citing these prime sources. Many of the essential oil data were gathered with all the books propped open and within reach, but the majority of essential oil data came from BML, GEO, and HHB, often uncited as they are in this volume. Maturing, I realized I frequently have to check back on some of my sources. As the database grew, I became more careful about sourcing my data, still keeping my citations as terse as possible.

In initiating the project, I entered any compound or element, whether accompanied by quantitative data or not. Finally I realized the futility of merely listing a universal element like zinc. Since all plants contain zinc, it is a useless listing, unless accompanied by quantitative data. Now as I write the introduction, 5 years after I started the unending compilation, I will no l...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• The Author
• Introduction
• Instructions for Searching the Database of Biologically Active Phytochemicals and Their Activities