ABSTRACT
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.
