An open dataset of 250 medicinal plants used across the Andes, Amazon, and broader Latin America. Includes scientific names, common names in Spanish and English, traditional uses, and cross-references to drug interaction data.
Browse the encyclopedia | Check drug interactions | Botanica Andina
250 medicinal plants with:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
id |
Unique identifier |
name |
Common name (Spanish) |
scientific |
Binomial nomenclature |
aliases |
Alternative names (Spanish, English, indigenous languages) |
article |
Link to detailed monograph on Botanica Andina |
592 documented interactions between these plants and 53 drug classes, sourced from:
- EMA/ESCOP herbal monographs
- PubMed Central systematic reviews
- WHO monographs on medicinal plants
- TRAMIL database
This database covers plants that are underrepresented in English-language pharmacological databases:
- Andean highlands: maca, quinoa, canihua, kiwicha, muña, coca
- Amazon basin: cat's claw, sangre de drago, sacha inchi, ayahuasca, chuchuhuasi
- Central America & Caribbean: chanca piedra, guanabana, moringa
- Widely used: turmeric, ginger, valerian, St. John's Wort, ginkgo
import json
plants = json.load(open("data/plants.json"))
# Find all plants with "claw" in aliases
results = [p for p in plants if any("claw" in a.lower() for a in p["aliases"])]
# Find Andean plants by scientific name pattern
andean = [p for p in plants if "Lepidium" in p["scientific"] or "Chenopodium" in p["scientific"]]If you know of documented medicinal plants from Latin America that are missing from this database, open an issue with:
- Scientific name
- Common names (any language)
- At least one published reference (PubMed, WHO, or equivalent)
MIT License. Free to use for research, education, and application development.
Maintained by Botanica Andina -- evidence-based research on Latin American medicinal plants.
Related tools:
- Herb-Drug Interaction Checker -- check interactions between these plants and medications
- Live tool -- browser-based interaction checker