Scientists, herbalists, health practitioners and researchers refer to the biological or therapeutic properties and actions of medicinal plants using general industry-standard words like anti-inflammatory, diuretic, antibacterial, and so on. These terms are used to describe the actions or properties of the plant that are attributed to it in traditional medicine and herbal medicine systems. Some words, such as antibacterial and antiviral are pretty easy and self-explanatory. Other words, such as vulnerary or vermifuge may be much less familiar to non-professionals. Some of these more technical terms might also have special nuances and meanings. For example; the terms aperient, laxative, purgative, and cathartic all refer to specific actions a laxative-like substance might have on bowel elimination. There are differences however. A plant with an aperient action is used as a very mild or gentle "laxative" (generic term) to increase mucus and water in the intestine to aid in elimination (and which might take a day or two to take effect). On the opposite end of the spectrum; a "laxative" that has a purgative or cathartic action promotes the immediate and complete evacuation of bowel (oftentimes prior to liquefying), acts in a few hours or less, and can sometimes cause intestinal cramping because it also stimulates the smooth muscles in the colon to move things along rather quickly. Therefore, just using the generic and well-known word "laxative" to describe these different properties and actions is not always helpful to the non-professional (especially one sitting in rush hour traffic thinking they've taken a "laxative" instead of knowing it was really a purgative!).

This reference guide (as well as the other reference guides in this section) uses the industry-standard technical term that have been attributed to the plants for this reason. While the technical term is used, a definition of each term is provided below as well as the corresponding lay-term that has been used in the main plant section in Section 3.

This reference guide summarizes the properties and actions ascribed to the rainforest plants as documented in this book and by hundreds of third party documents, clinical studies, laboratory experiments and other herbal medicine books. Since many actions and properties can be attributed to the same plant (and many plants can have the same documented action) it can get confusing to the average lay person, and even the professional, as to which plant to turn to first. In an effort to simplify things, the information has been broken down in three ways. In the first line under the definition (shown as "A" below) the top 5 plants are shown which practitioners and herbalists generally turn to first to achieve that particular action and in order of preference. The guide also differentiates whether the actions were recorded though some kind of clinical research/laboratory test (shown as "B" and listed alphabetically), or whether just through its documented use in herbal medicine (shown as "C" and listed alphabetically). Please remember however, when it refers to research in "B" below; it may be just a laboratory experiment, a test tube study, or preliminary animal research and not a human clinical study or a substantial medical trial.

This information has been compiled and provided as a quick reference guide on what has been actually documented on the plants - not to make specific medical claims for them. As always, it is best to refer to the text provided in section 3 for more complete information on each plant's potential action, property and use, as well as, what actual research supports it. These documented actions however, might help explain why the plant is used in a particular way in herbal medicine systems. For example: a plant used as a heart tonic or for high blood pressure in herbal medicine, might have been documented with a hypotensive action in an animal study. Or, someone with arthritis reading this book might be looking for plants with documented anti-inflammatory actions and this table would guide them to the top five plants in section 3 to read about first by seeing line A under the term anti-inflammatory.

The information provided in Raintree's Tropical Plant Database is intended and provided for education, research, entertainment, and information purposes only. This information is not intended to be used to diagnose, prescribe or replace proper medical care. The plants described in the Tropical Plant Database are not intended to treat, cure, diagnose, mitigate or prevent any disease and no medical claims are made. Please refer to our Conditions of Use for using this plant database and web site.