This site has been created by pharmacists, for pharmacists. Our goal in providing this web site is to assist pharmacists in finding information concerning herbal medicines that is most useful for both the pharmacist and the patient. This meta-directory is a compilation of the sites that we consider to be the highest quality and most useful to pharmacists.

We have devised a Rating System by applying our chosen Criteria for different categories, and have created tables for the three major categories of assessment, Pharmacy Information, Information Quality and Web Site Design. Based on our findings in those areas, we have used a "3-Leaf" rating system to indicate the overall quality of the Pharmacy Information category and a qualitative rating for the other two categories.

In addition to the rating system, brief Web Site Descriptions of each site have been provided. This will help to give a better idea of the strengths and weaknesses, and any unique qualities, of each of the sites. The section titled Monographs includes most of the web sites that we have selected for review. Information provided at these web sites is usually, but not always, provided in the form of monographs. We have included some Databases for those who would rather research a topic for themselves. These are excellent sources of primary information and we have included the ones that we found to be most complete and easy to use, however, we did not apply the rating system to the databases sites. Reviewed sites scoring less than ten points are not listed on the rating tables; site descriptions are not provided but links are available.

We will be continually reviewing and adding new herbal web sites to this page.

ThaiBinh TonThat

Staff Pharmacist, The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy Divsion of Drug Information Service

Pharm.D.

Nicola Sarrazin

Staff Pharmacist, The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy Division of Drug Information Service

Pharm.D., B.A., Anthropology and Asian Studies, The University of Iowa

Christine M. Catney

Director Pharmacy Teaching Center, The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy

M.A., Pharm.D.

November 2001