Summary:

NAPRALERT(sm): NAtural PRoducts ALERT is a database which is "...updated periodically and which has been copyrighted from 1975 to date by the Board of Trustees, The University of Illinois....The data in NAPRALERT(SM) represent a synthesis of information from more than 124,000 scientific journal articles, books, abstracts, and patents, collected systematically from the global literature, since 1975....Information covered concerns mainly ethnomedical data on plants, biological effects reported for extracts of living organisms and the occurrence of secondary chemical metabolites in living organisms. Biological effects reported for chemical compounds from natural sources of defined chemical structure are also included in the database, primarily for those compounds before they are marketed. NAPRALERT(SM) is updated quarterly from current literature at the rate of approximately 600 articles per month."

Within the site's main page are links shown for the homepages of the database's design and maintenance team, as well as search engines for the site. New users must register with the database's creators before being allowed access; users should note that there is a fee for using the database and receiving reports. For those users who have registered in the past, the search engine is opened by submitting a name, password, and e-mail address in provided fields. Below this area, special fields are found for specifying searches. These fields, in turn, are divided into three search interest areas: (1) for plants-based searches; (2) for compound-based searches; and (3) for biological activities-based searches.

Within plants-based search fields, users can specify plant names for the following search results: (1) ethnomedical usage reports; (2) reports on compounds isolated from plants; (3) reports on pharmacology reported for plant extracts; (4) reports based on a combination of these prior three searches, combined; (5) verifying synonomy of plant names; (6) all common names associated with a plant; and (7) the cost of a three-part query with the database. Within compounds-based search fields, users can specify compound names for search results which consist of: (1) reports on isolations of compounds; (2) reports on published pharmacology of compounds; (3) reports which combine these prior two options; and (4) reports which estimate the cost of a two-part query.

The final search area, biological activities-based searches, allows users to specify these actions, within given fields, to result in the following kinds of searches: (1) key word based, relevant term field reports; (2) reports for extracts that have been tested for an activity; (3) reports of compounds tested for activity; (4) the estimated cost of extract reports on activity; and (5) the estimated cost of reports on compound activity. The database and its site are maintained by the Program for Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences; the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy; College of Pharmacy; the University of Illinois at Chicago.

To Search:

Register with database to obtain results. Then open search link from main page; select topic of interest and narrow search results through provided fields.