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Journal of Ethnopharmacology 120 (2008) 127–128

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In the past 2 years we had reviews to set standards for studiesf medicinal plants for antimicrobial activity (Cos et al., 2006) andor diabetes (Fröde and Medeiros, 2008; Matteucci and Giampietro,008). A similar paper is urgently needed for ethnopharmacologicalurvey papers, many of which are now rejected in an early phases they lack proper quantitative data. In an effort in writing downy views on the requirements for a good ethnopharmacological

urvey paper, it came to my mind that the essence of these studiess a (long) list of plant names and uses. If we look at the papersublished in the journal in the first 6 months of this year we canee that a large number of plants species have been described: Abot al. (2008) (31 species), Ajibesin et al. (2008) (114 species), Aut al. (2008) (94 species), Ballabh et al. (2008) (68 species), Coe2008)(162 species), Farooq et al. (2008) (18 species), Inta et al.2008) (95 species), Jeruto et al. (2008) (40 species), Roosita et al.2008) (117 species), Samy et al. (2008) (72 species), Singh and Lal2008) (58 plants), and Tabuti (2008) (27 species), which add up to96 different plant species.

Though in many cases these papers are purely descriptive, thenformation is essential as they are reporting knowledge which isapidly disappearing, and it may be the last chance to save thismportant heritage of our ancestors. Moreover, these observationsan be used by others as the basis for further studies for biologi-al activity and may result in new leads for medicines and, maybeven more importantly, to evidence-based traditional medicines.he point that needs extensive discussion in such a publication isow the data are obtained and how reliable they are based on aroper sampling of information and subsequent statistical analy-is. In the past years I have rejected many papers because theseoints were not properly described/done in my view.

Work has started on a paper dealing with the basic requirementsor collection of quantifiable data, and these points will be discussedn a workshop at the upcoming ISE meeting in Sao Paulo. This initia-ive should help to improve the reliability and quality of the efforts

ade worldwide in documenting traditional use.However, these papers always will end with lists of plants, uses,

tc. These data are not so easy to access, as they will be in numerousndividual papers, not always easy to find with the various literatureearch engines when searching for a specific plant or an activity. Inny case if someone wants to know the use of a certain plant he/sheas to search all these papers for relevant data.

This gave me the idea that in fact all these data should go in oneepository with a given format for ethnopharmacological data onlants or other organisms. It would thus be of great interest to startrepository in which the data from accepted survey papers will be

tored. The survey papers could for example only be the materials

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378-8741/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.oi:10.1016/j.jep.2008.08.020

nd methods, and discussion, whereas the “list” goes as supplemen-ary data into the repository. This repository should be organized inuch a way that it would be easy to find all data for a certain plantpecies, or all plants used for a certain disease. This would also beery helpful for both authors and referees to describe/judge thethnopharmacological relevance of a certain plant. For the investi-ator it should also be helpful to compare available knowledge withis/her findings in a survey: are the results novel, or just confirm-

ng well known use. In my expectation this would be a very usefullatform for all aspects of ethnopharmacological studies. It wouldlso solve the problem of publishing very large surveys which mayover several hundred plants, far too big to publish in the journal.ut with a repository as mentioned such a paper could become partf the internationally peer reviewed scientific information, with ahort paper describing the methodology, discussing the findings inmore general way and giving the references, the rest would be as

upplemental data in the repository.In my view it is an important task for JEP to document our world

eritage of traditional knowledge on medicinal plants and relatedreparations. After all, science is based on observations, if we cantore these in a proper way it would be very helpful for futureenerations. It also would mean to some extent a novel way ofublishing, something I should like to advocate also in connectionith the “-omics”. For example in case of metabolomics, one could

eparate discussion from the raw data. The first one people willorget soon, the raw data, the observations should stand “for ever”.he strength of molecular biology is the databases with gene androtein sequences which are available for data-mining. My dreamould be to have an ethnopharmacological database that could besed for datamining, e.g. for drug development.

I could elaborate further on this idea, but I first should like to askour views, from you as a scientist, referee, author, editorial boardember or editor. I should like to hear comments from the scientific

oint of view, on the feasibility of this repository approach, andbout similar initiatives on national, regional or international level.opefully at the ISE meeting in Sao Paulo, we can make a first step

n this direction with a workshop that is already planned in therogram.

eferences

bo, K.A., Fred-Jaiyesemi, A.A., Jaiyesemi, A.E.A., 2008. Ethnobotanical study ofmedicinal plants used in the management of diabetes mellitus in South WesternNigeria. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 115, 67–71.

jibesin, K.K., Ekpo, B.A., Bala, D.N., Essien, E.E., Adesanya, S.A., 2008. Ethnobotan-ical survey of Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 115,387–408.

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u, D.T., Wu, J., Jiang, Z., Chen, H., Lu, G., Zhao, Z., 2008. Ethnobotanical study ofmedicinal plants used by Hakka in Guangdong, China. Journal of Ethnopharma-cology 117, 41–50.

allabh, B., Chaurasia, O.P., Ahmed, Z., Singh, S.B., 2008. Traditional medicinal plantsof cold desert Ladakh—used against kidney and urinary disorders. Journal ofEthnopharmacology 118, 331–339.

oe, F.G., 2008. Rama midwifery in eastern Nicaragua. Journal of Ethnopharmacology117, 136–157.

os, P., Vlietinck, A.J., Berghe, D.V., Maes, L., 2006. Anti-infective potential of natu-ral products: how to develop a stronger in vitro ‘proof-of-concept’. Journal ofEthnopharmacology 106, 290–302.

arooq, Z., Iqbal, Z., Mushtaq, S., Muhammad, G., Iqbal, M.Z., Arshad, M., 2008.Ethnoveterinary practices for the treatment of parasitic diseases in live-stock in Cholistan desert (Pakistan). Journal of Ethnopharmacology 118,213–219.

röde, T.S., Medeiros, Y.S., 2008. Animal models to test drugs with potential antidi-abetic activity. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 115, 173–183.

nta, A., Shengji, P., Balslev, H., Wangpakapattanawong, P., Trisonthi, C., 2008. A com-

parative study on medicinal plants used in Akha’s traditional medicine in Chinaand Thailand, cultural coherence or ecological divergence? Journal of Ethnophar-macology 116, 508–517.

eruto, P., Lukhoba, C., Ouma, G., Otieno, D., Mutai, C., 2008. An ethnobotanical studyof medicinal plants used by the Nandi people in Kenya. Journal of Ethnophar-macology 116, 370–376.

cology 120 (2008) 127–128

atteucci, E., Giampietro, O., 2008. Proposal open for discussion: defining agreeddiagnostic procedures in experimental diabetes research. Journal of Ethnophar-macology 115, 163–172.

oosita, K., Kusharto, C.M., Sekiyama, M., Fachrurozi, Y., Ohtsuka, R., 2008. Medicinalplants used by the villagers of a Sundanese community in West Java, Indonesia.Journal of Ethnopharmacology 115, 72–81.

amy, R.P., Thwin, M.M., Gopalakrishnakone, P., Ignacimuthu, S., 2008. Ethnobotan-ical survey of folk plants for the treatment of snakebites in southern part ofTamilnadu, India. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 115, 302–312.

ingh, K.N., Lal, B., 2008. Ethnomedicines used against four common ailments by thetribal communities of Lahaul-Spiti in western Himalaya. Journal of Ethnophar-macology 115, 147–159.

abuti, J.R.S., 2008. Herbal medicines used in the treatment of malaria in Budiopecounty, Uganda. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 116, 33–42.

Rob VerpoorteSection Metabolomics, IBL, Leiden University,

PO Box 9502, 2300RA Leiden, The NetherlandsE-mail address: verpoort@chem.leidenuniv.nl

7 July 2008Available online 23 August 2008