Natural History Museum Homeopathic Database
The Natural History Museum has a homeopathy database as a standard reference system for homeopathic practitioners, and other users of plant remedies. Search database
The information is based on long established remedies in the Homeopathic Materiae Medicae that are now revised and updated and the online access means it can be maintained and updated easily in line with current concepts of botanical nomenclature.
What’s included
The remedies used in homeopathy are mostly derived from angiosperms (flowering plants), though some conifers and ferns as well as fungi, including lichens, brown and red algae are also used. Other homeopathic remedies derive from animals and minerals, but these are not considered here.
History of naming species
Homeopathic remedies have accumulated gradually over the past 200 years. During this time, the plants and fungi in the various Homeopathic Materiae Medicae have received a variety of epithets, although these are mostly Latin names. Often, the naming of these plant remedies has not followed any recognised botanical or medical code and, despite having some resemblance to the modern botanical system, nearly half of these names needed updating with respect to the current International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN; Greuter et al ., 2000; McNeill et al., 2006).
In response to this problem, of outdated and often inaccurate nomenclature, a new checklist was prepared (Bharatan et al ., 2002; Bharatan and Humphries, 2002).
This checklist together with the online searchable database can be updated in line with the revisions of the Botanical Code that take place every 6 years.
Sources
The list of the plant and fungi remedies used in the Complete Repertory (van Zandvoort, 1994-1996) provided the framework for linking and associating all other names from their various sources. These sources are the Materiae Medicae (see van Zandvoort, 1994-1996), and available editions of the American (1979), French (1991), and German (1990 and 1993) homeopathic pharmacopoeias.
Database
A bespoke database was used for storing the data of the plants and fungi used in homeopathy. Every published authority for each species was checked from primary sources and all citation errors corrected. All names conform to ICBN rules with the authority, place and date of publication for each name given.
Abbreviated statements regarding status of the name follow directly after the bibliographic citation, e.g. nom. nud. (nomen nudum). Other statements include orthographic variants (differences in spelling) are given in parentheses, and publications not seen are given in curly brackets.
An accepted name may have many synonyms, but only those synonyms that are used as homeopathic names are included in this list.
Linked elements
Other linked elements in the database are family names, standard abbreviated remedy names, letter codes, and, where needed, additional information provided as notes. These notes include common names, vernacular names, names peculiar to homeopathy and those names of different species that have been misidentified.
Sue :: Feb.19.2008 :: homeopathy :: 1 Comment »
Interesting ! & equally the debate too between Goldicare & Peter Fisher
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/plants-fungi/301106homeopathy/does-homeopathy-work.html