eftychia: Lego-ish figure in blue dress, with beard and breasts, holding sword and electric guitar (lego-blue)
Add MemoryShare This Entry

Yesterday afternoon: Moving slowly; gave up on one of the only two items on my to-do list for the day; got out the door late but not disastrously so.

Yesterday evening: Gig went well enough despite nasty cramp in my strumming hand halfway through.

Last night, late: While talking to [livejournal.com profile] anniemal on the phone, I heard a noise in the distance that might have been a string of firecrackers. Then I heard sirens ... intermittently, from several directions, over the next forty minutes. Looking out the window I saw police cars crisscrossing the area, going the wrong way on Fulton Ave., circling; I guess the sound wasn't firecrackers. Finally an ambulance, so I guess they eventually figured out where the sounds had come from.

Today: Migraine of the ohmyGodmyheadisexploding variety, with nausea. Plans to go out today quite cancelled. Haven't been able to do more than peek briefly at LJ (spot-checking, not catching up) when bored of lying here whispering "ow"; did wind up with some interesting mis-readings that way. Haven't decided whether any are entertaining enough to warrant reiterating here; will see how amusing they look with a clearer head.

I think I'm up to standing up long enough to prepare herbal remedy (still need to research the chemistry behind that) and some food now, so my day should improve from here forward. Still not going to try to go anywhere though.

Need assistance from someone with more powerful Google-fu (or a conveniently this-problem-shaped Clue): is there someplace where I can look up "this plant contains the following chemicals", ideally with the unfamiliar compounds tagged as to their reasons for being interesting (e.g.: flavinoid, vitamin, xanthine, phytoestrogen, vasoconstrictor, analgesic, etc.) and quantity present (in the raw ingredient or possibly "as usually prepared")? At the moment I'm looking for the breakdowns of lavender and basil, but it's the sort of thing I find myself wondering about a lot in general.

There are 11 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 
posted by [identity profile] cielf.livejournal.com at 11:56pm on 2006-01-08
(FWIW, I highly recommend Clusty (http://clusty.com) for searches of this sort -- where some of the terms have multiple meanings -- it groups the results according to context.)

This database (http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/) seems to give lists of chemicals in various plants, and plants with a given chemical.

Hope it helps. It doesn't have the "this is why the compound is interesting" components, and probably includes the uninteresting chemicals as well - but it's a start.
 
posted by [identity profile] cirith-ungol.livejournal.com at 01:28am on 2006-01-09
Being the inquisitive sort, quick on the medical translation, and a fast reader, I found that both basil (species) and lavender (species) contain vasodilators. Unless I'm mistaken, isn't the common migraine centered around blood vessels constricting in the brain?
 
posted by [identity profile] dglenn.livejournal.com at 12:46am on 2006-01-13
Okay, that database is at least as much as I could reasonably hope for and a considerable fraction of what I wanted. I'm a long way from my goal (mostly due to lack of knowledge in the field) but you've put me several steps ahead of where I was, just by providing that URL. Thank you.

(I'm seeing interesting stuff, it's just taking me longer than I wish it would because of all the side trips to look up stuff and find out it's not what I was looking for -- and that's something just has to be expected since I never took any courses relevant to this in college and am still low on the learning curve for educating myself about biochem and pharmacology. Now if I figure out away to automate some of those detours by linking multiple web sites together, maybe I can compensate for my ignorance and speed things up...)

Again, thanks. That's darned close to what I was looking for, and closer to it than I was counting on finding.
 
posted by [identity profile] cielf.livejournal.com at 01:57am on 2006-01-13
You're welcome, I'm glad to be of help.
siderea: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] siderea at 01:27am on 2006-01-09
is there someplace where I can look up "this plant contains the following chemicals", ideally with the unfamiliar compounds tagged as to their reasons for being interesting (e.g.: flavinoid, vitamin, xanthine, phytoestrogen, vasoconstrictor, analgesic, etc.) and quantity present (in the raw ingredient or possibly "as usually prepared")?

Once upon a time (1950s or so?) such a work is what was meant by "Pharmacopoeia". Subsequently, they started being organized by compound instead of by plant. :( You may find that a useful search term, anyway.
 
posted by (anonymous) at 03:58am on 2006-01-09
Hmm. GNC.com has a moderately good herbal section, with some decent links. The German approved-meds list includes lots of herbs, and might be helpful, but I'm not sure if/where it's available online in English.

On a related topic ... I've read that most USians are low on magnesium, and have started taking it recently myself, because low levels are supposed to increase the risk of migraines and leg cramps, among other problems.
 
posted by [identity profile] weskeag.livejournal.com at 04:44am on 2006-01-09
I use the Merck Index, Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ (ISBN 0911910-12-3 for the 12th ed. (1996)) for this purpose.

Older editions can usually be had for cheap in used bookstores.
 
posted by [identity profile] realinterrobang.livejournal.com at 09:07am on 2006-01-09
Thanks to everyone who posted here; I'm sure this information will come in handy to me, as well.

I was looking for that information for you the other night when we were talking, Glenn, but my Google-fu was out hitting on hot geeks or something.
 
posted by [identity profile] sister-devora.livejournal.com at 02:08pm on 2006-01-09
You take care of yourself, hear? I've taken to worrying about you, what with all these "firecrackers".
 
posted by [identity profile] flaviarassen.livejournal.com at 05:35pm on 2006-01-09
Have you ever discussed your migraines with your (ex?) Boss' Bimbo (tm)? I know she suffers dreadfully as well (I'm going to feel like an idiot if she is on your LJ Friends list & I couldn't figure out which one she is....).
 
posted by [identity profile] madbodger.livejournal.com at 08:47pm on 2006-01-09
I just pinged a company that makes a horticultural information CD, asking them if
they'd like help adding Macintosh and/or Linux support to their windoze-only
product. I left out the sentence saying that their refusal would constitute
legally-binding permission for me to reverse engineer their software and
publish the results.

Links

January

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24
 
25
 
26
 
27
 
28
 
29
 
30
 
31