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Email: jeffrey@treesforlife.org
New Online Journal Explores Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine
Free forum will expand global knowledge about
beneficial plants and trees
WICHITA, KS— A new online scientific journal
focused on traditional knowledge and scientific studies of beneficial plants launched
this month, announced Balbir Mathur, president of the non-profit Trees for
Life. Trees for Life Journal: A forum on beneficial trees and plants
will be a free, open access electronic forum, to bring together international articles
about traditional medicine, small-scale field studies and scientific evidence
regarding natural remedies and medicinal plants that could benefit humanity. The
journal is available online at www.tfljournal.org.
“Our
journal aims to bridge the gap between grassroots knowledge and scientific
research,” Mathur said. “By publishing formal and informal studies on medicinal
plants and trees and the resulting herbal remedies, we hope to advance the use
of these vital resources worldwide.”
Trees
for Life is a non-profit organization that helps plant fruit trees in
developing countries as a low-cost, self-renewing food source. The movement’s
philosophy of “education, health and environment” will be evident in Trees
for Life Journal, which aims to expand global knowledge about the medical
and nutritional value of plants in order to educate citizens of third world
countries.
The
idea for the journal was born from traditional claims about the nutritional,
medicinal and other beneficial properties of the tree Moringa oleifera. Every
part of the tree is edible or used as traditional medicine, from the leaves to
the bark to the seeds. It grows wild in poor soil and provides vitamins
desperately lacking in diets of impoverished people. Trees for Life recognized
the need for a forum to publish and discuss scientific studies and communal
knowledge of this tree, in order to promote its cultivation in the developing
world. The inaugural issue of the journal includes a review of the medical
evidence for Moringa’s potential.
“People
whose lives could be improved by research findings are not even aware such a
wealth of information exists in their midst,” said Mathur. “Almost anyone with
experience would agree that many more channels of communication are needed to
increase the exchange between academics and lay people.”
Trees
for Life Journal
will be free to users and features an easy-to-use format. Anyone may publish an
article—from peer-reviewed field and clinical studies to informal essays or
ideas for possible new uses of medicinal plants and trees. The content is also
freely available for reproduction and distribution, with credit given to the
original authors. The Web site also features a mentor program that matches
experienced scientists with those who are new to the research process.
Publishing electronically means the journal can be updated as often as
necessary.
“The
ease and speed of this technology transcends the barriers of cost, space and
time,” Mathur said. “Thanks to the Web, it is now possible to scale the walls
that have long divided those who know and those who need the knowledge.”
Dr.
Doren Fredrickson of the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita will be the journal's Chairman. Dr.
Jed Fahey of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will be
Editor-in-Chief and Jeffrey Faus of Trees for Life will be Managing Editor.
About
Trees for Life:
Founded in 1984 by Wichita businessman Balbir Mathur, Trees for Life is an international
nonprofit movement that demonstrates that by helping each other, people can
unleash extraordinary power that enriches every life. Their mission is to
create hope through a movement in which people join hands to break the cycle of
poverty and hunger and care for our earth. For more information about the Trees
for Life organization, visit www.treesforlife.org.