Who are we?

We are an international group of experts; all of us use plants as medicines in practice and have many decades of experience between us. We are struck by how different plants are from other medicines and are always looking for ways to know more about their role in our work.

Over 16 years we have developed EXTRACT as an 'expert-based knowledge system' to help us, using relational database technology to construct a unique new evidence base. EXTRACT makes sense of the fragments of information better than anything else we know. We now wish to share it with as many others as possible.

The EXTRACT database and its associated resources are managed in the public interest by Plant Medicine Community Interest Company, a new international social enterprise corporation registered in England (Company No. 4780923).

Under the terms of the Community Interest legislation all company assets are locked to a separate non-profit organisation, in this case the Tai Sophia Institute for the Healing Arts a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation in the USA. Tai Sophia is home to the only MSc in Herbal Medicine Program in the USA and to future distance learning programs linked to Plant Medicine. Tai Sophia is entirely dedicated to putting knowledge to service human health and all its work is grounded in clinical realities. It has a faculty of leading educators in the field of clinical herbal medicine and an expanding specialist alumni, some of whom have worked on the EXTRACT database and other Plant Medicine projects. 

The object of Plant Medicine CIC is "to provide information, education, knowledge, research and innovation in the field of plant medicine for the benefit of the community".

We are not tied to any manufacturer or product range. The only special interest we recognise is in plants as a resource in healthcare. We are committed to providing the most comprehensive, balanced and independent information available. It is the same commitment we make to our patients.

So, this is the Plant Medicine deal...

• To offer for the widest possible scrutiny a comprehensive evidence base, the EXTRACT database, on the use of plant medicines.

• To complement and enrich the evidence base with accumulated narratives from users of plant medicines, using an open-access web database for visitor authoring and editing.

• To develop a new language for the discussion of plant medicines consistent with empirical insights into their character and use, and to apply such insights to the most appropriate yet rigorous assessment of the efficacy of plant medicines.

• To espouse modern standards for assuring quality of plant medicines and to counter widespread and ingrained commercial abuses; to recommend manufactured products only where quality standards are independently verified.

• To incorporate the best modern approaches to monitoring safety in human use; constantly to update with adverse effects monitoring information from regulatory and other agencies.

• By integrating the most up-to-date information and insights into the use of plant medicines to inform health professionals and the public about their impact on and potential interactions with modern health care.

• To apply the database and narrative materials directly to interactive continuing education programmes for health professionals.

• To encourage sustainable and ‘intermediate technology’ solutions to the cultivation, production and use of plant medicines, particularly in developing countries, so as

-            to counter the effects of over-exploitation of wild populations,

-            to improve quality standards and so enhance market prospects,

-            to support cultural and economic autonomy and health care within local communities.

© Plant-Medicine CIC