Content uploaded by Richard J. Schmidt
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Richard J. Schmidt on May 17, 2019
Content may be subject to copyright.
PLANT TALK
The Botanical
Dermatology
Database
(http://BoDD.cf.ac.uk):
An Electronic
Reincarnation of
Mitchell and Rook’s
Botanical
Dermatology
Richard J. Schmidt
An account is provided of the history and planned
development of BoDD: Botanical Dermatology
Database, a major Internet resource.
Copyright
©
2001 by W.B. Saunders Company
IN1979,JOHNMITCHELLandArthurRook
1
produced an encyclopedic textbook entitled
Botanical Dermatology: Plants Injurious to the Skin.
Although long out of print, this text remains a
standard reference on the subject of plant and
plant product–induced dermatoses. Other spe-
cialized textbooks on the subject have appeared
in the intervening period
2,3
in which newer liter-
ature is reviewed, but no other work has at-
tempted to provide the exhaustive coverage that
characterizes Mitchell and Rook’s Botanical Der-
matology.
Soon after the publication of Botanical Derma-
tology, Mitchell and Rook started planning a sec-
ond edition. They intended to improve on their
first edition by incorporating phytochemical in-
formation, and they invited Richard J. Schmidt to
assist in this endeavor as a coauthor. They also
realized that many of the original articles cited
did not use precise botanical nomenclature, and
the new edition was to use botanically correct
nomenclature. For example, a consideration of
the nomenclatural problems surrounding florists’
chrysanthemums (better referred to as members
of the genus Dendranthema, not the genus Chrysan-
themum)waspublished
4
as a spin-off of the second
edition in progress. This study exposed the
rather troublesome problem of the inaccurate
botanical identification of chrysanthemums fea-
tured in the dermatologic literature, a situation
that severely limits the scientific value of the
clinical studies in question.
Systematic review of each plant family mono-
graph thus proceeded from 1980 through 1984.
Botanical nomenclature was corrected, refer-
ences to the phytochemical literature were incor-
porated, and new dermatologic information was
added. All monographs from Acanthaceae through
From Richard J. Schmidt, PhD, !the Department of Dermatology,
University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.
Address reprint requests to Richard J. Schmidt, PhD, schmidt@cf.
ac.uk.
Copyright ©2001 by W.B. Saunders Company
1046-199X/01/1201-0010$35.00/0
doi:10.1053/ajcd.2000.8938
SECTION EDITORS:
THOMAS W. MCGOVERN, M.D.
Ft. Wayne Dermatology, P.C.
S750 Falls Dr
Ft. Wayne, IN 46804
Some people talk to plants. Fewer people
think plants talk to them. We want to talk about
plants, and we hope that you will not only want
to listen, but also, perhaps, you will even occa-
sionally talk to us about plants.
Plants can cause an array of reactions in
members of Homo sapiens, and in the course of
this quarterly feature, we will provide reviews
and/or commentary on common reactions to
common plants, uncommon reactions to uncom-
mon plants, and many reactions in-between.
Plants and their derivatives have the potential
not only to harm the skin, but also to ameliorate
skin disease, and we welcome papers that con-
cern either of these aspects of plants. If an
occasional column is not necessarily practical,
we hope it will be enjoyable.
American Journal of Contact Dermatitis, Vol 12, No 1 (March), 2001: pp 40-4240
American Journal of Contact Dermatitis 12(1): 40-42 (2001) [ISSN 1046-199X]
Euphorbiaceae, including the nonplant Fungi, were
revised, updated, and expanded. For various rea-
sons, work on the second edition stalled in 1984
and was archived in electronic form. Ten years
later, during the birth of the World Wide Web
(WWW), the ongoing manuscript for the second
edition was transferred into hypertext markup
language (HTML) and launched in August, 1994
at http://medusa.cf.ac.uk. In January 1997, the
Web site was named BoDD—Botanical Dermatology
Database and assigned its current Internet ad-
dress: http://BoDD.cf.ac.uk. The database cur-
rently resides on a server in the Dermatology
Department in the University of Wales College
of Medicine.
Current Status of the BoDD
The Botanical Dermatology Database is primar-
ily a resource for dermatologists. However, be-
cause of its position at the interface between
botany, phytochemistry, and medicine, it is ac-
cessed by scientists representing a wide range of
disciplines. Thus, botanists, taxonomists, phyto-
chemists, medicinal chemists, immunologists,
photobiologists, toxicologists, general medical
practitioners, pharmacists, nurses, herbal and
traditional medical practitioners, aromathera-
pists, horticulturalists, nurserymen, and anyone
who comes into contact with or is studying flow-
ering plants, vegetables, shrubs, trees, fungi, li-
chens, algae, or ferns will find something of in-
terest in BoDD.
The current database includes 234 plant fam-
ily monographs and receives approximately 5,000
hits monthly. A number of Internet sites link to
the BoDD, including approximately 90 dermato-
logic sites; 90 sites covering agriculture, arbori-
culture, botany, horticulture and mycology; and
almost 100 links from sites covering aroma-
therapy, herbal medicine, medicinal plants, pa-
thology, pharmacology, pharmacy, and toxicol-
ogy.
5
An additional 50 or so links are provided
from miscellaneous sites spanning subject areas
from books on line to a site for journalists looking
for health-related topics on the WWW to musical
instrument makers to a site dedicated to scabies.
From the home page (http://bodd.cf.ac.uk), a
user can access information through a search
engine that returns the name of plant family
monographs containing the term searched for.
These monographs contain a wealth of clinical
and phytochemical information assiduously ref-
erenced to the original articles. For instance, the
article on the Anacardiaceae includes nearly 20,000
words describing more than 120 plant species
and detailing various dermatologic manifesta-
tions and their treatment.
6
The main index in-
cludes subindices for plant names (common and
scientific), plant products (including cosmetic
raw materials, pharmaceuticals, and phyto-
chemicals), dermatologic treatment (herbal rem-
edies), and adverse cutaneous effects. The data-
base continues to be updated. Although Mitchell
and Rook’s second edition will likely never be
published, its reincarnation (with their kind per-
mission) on the WWW will doubtless serve a
broader audience more successfully that the orig-
inally conceived second edition ever would have.
The Future of BoDD
Because BoDD is accessed by individuals with a
wide variety of interests, it makes sense to de-
velop the database to cover a greater area than
originally envisaged by Mitchell and Rook. The
intention is to incorporate information on the use
of plants and plant products to treat skin disease.
Its inclusion in BoDD would potentially stimulate
the search for novel therapeutic agents for some
of the intractable skin conditions that dermatol-
ogists find most difficult to treat. Much of the
available information exists in textbooks long out
of print and increasingly overlooked as sources of
new ideas in this electronic age.
Another planned development is to make elec-
tronic copies of some of the better reviews of
topics relevant to botanical dermatology avail-
able through BoDD, with the permission of the
original authors and/or publishers. This would
make the original dermatologic articles and book
chapters more readily accessible to a much wider
readership than is currently possible when the
journals in question are hidden away in specialist
dermatology libraries.
In the best traditions of the WWW, BoDD is
provided as a free resource. Because of this,
progress in revising, updating, and developing
BoDD is severely limited. Some monographs still
require the addition of a list of references. This
activity is ongoing. Although it is accessed several
thousand times each month, the number of visi-
tors to BoDD is insufficient to make the site
attractive to major advertisers, who typically seek
BoDD: Botanical Dermatology Database 41
sites offering several million visitors a month. A
significant injection of funding, perhaps in the
form of an educational grant, would enable more
rapid progress to be made. Users who find the
site helpful can also click on “Support BoDD” to
see how they can contribute to this effort by
registering for use and paying a very small fee
($15 for an individual).
If you have not yet accessed BoDD, why not try
it now. Type in the name of a plant about which
you want to learn and see what comes up. It is
free, it is easy, and there is no better source to
learn about plants and their interactions with the
skin. This Web site should be bookmarked by any
dermatologist with an interest in contact derma-
titis.
References
1. Mitchell J, Rook A: Botanical Dermatology: Plants Injurious
to the Skin. Vancouver, Greengrass, 1979
2. Lovell CR: Plants and the Skin. Oxford, Blackwell Scientific,
1993
3. Avalos J, Maibach HI (eds): Dermatologic Botany. Boca Ra-
ton, FL, CRC Press, 2000
4. Schmidt RJ: When is a chrysanthemum dermatitis not a
Chrysanthemum dermatitis? The case for describing florists’
chrysanthemums as Dendranthema cultivars. Contact Derma-
titis 13:115-119, 1985
5. Schmidt RJ: Links to BoDD: the Botanical Dermatology
Database. Available at: http://bodd.cf.ac.uk/BotDermFolder/
BotDermA/ANAC.html. Accessed August 16, 2000
6. Schmidt RJ: Anacardiaceae. Available at: http://bodd.c-
f.ac.uk/BotDermFolder/BotDermA/ANAC.html. Accessed
August 16, 2000
Richard J. Schmidt42