Medherb: An Interactive Bioinformatics Database and Analysis Resource for Medicinally Important Herbs

Ethnopharmacological findings are spread over several databases but are not well connected to other biomedical databases. Consequently, the utility of these sources as knowledge resources are limited. Herbal medicines have long been used for the treatment of different ailments and have attracted the attention of scientists and patients due to their easy availability, low cost, and affordability. Research is being performed on the active constituents, protein availability, healing benefits of the medicinal herbs, and their implication in the treatment of multidrug resistant pathogens. Thus, the cataloging of medicinal herbs’ information along with their DNA/protein sequences has become a fundamental step in the development of new medicinal drugs against diseases. However, assembly of this information requires proper storage, management and analyzing tools. This database provides comprehensive information on medicinal properties of herbs with a stylish web interface. MedHerb database provides quick information access to medicinal herbs, genes, proteins, plant species, statistical vision, and published literature with detailed information on each aspect at only one click. Although several medicinal plants have been tested for different diseases but detailed information on above aspects on only 9 medicinal plant species is available. Studies are being done to explore other plant species and assemble their all characteristics and will be added in this database when available. Availability of primers is another unique feature of the database assisting in Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) application. This database aims to expand the information by adding new features like addition of more plant species, expressed sequence tags, information on active constituents and new tools to facilitate the researchers from different backgrounds. The database is available at http://medicinalherbs.comule.com/.