I think that's a great question. What you say makes sense, but whether there
are studies to back that up, I'm not quite sure. It seems that a lot of
studies will usually start with a pharmacological dose (many years back, I
recall studies on lycopene starting off with a mega dose) which is not able
to be reproduced with just foods. There are several reasons (good and bad in
my opinion) for this, but you've gotten me curious. With your
permission, I'll ask around on other lists about this too.

In the meantime, here are some resources I can think of that may cite
studies, but my suggestions may be way outdated:
The IBIDS database http://grande.nal.usda.gov/ibids/index.php
Office of Dietary Supplements http://ods.od.nih.gov/index.aspx
Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database (there is a fee for this)
http://www.naturaldatabase.com/
The German Commission E Monographs
http://cms.herbalgram.org/commissione/index.html

Take care,

Renata Mangrum, MPH, RD.
http://nurturingnotes.blogspot.com
http://infantfeedinghistory.blogspot.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/renatamangrum


On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Kershaw Jane <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> It might be counter to the general thought train - but I have a question to
> the wise ones.  Some of the thoughts behind whole foods rather than
> supplements is that there are many co-factors in foods that help with
> absorption, digestion, etc.  Would this not apply to herbals also - since
> they are basically foods?  This might counter what you have found, but in my
> practice of over 22 years, I have found better results with whole product
> (seeds, etc) than tinctures.  Not sure what that might mean, since I have
> not seen any REAL studies that prove anything at all about efficacy or
> separate placebo effect from real effect (other than a 1945 study on
> fenugreek).  Anyone know of any good study with ADEQUATE accepted dosages of
> herbal products?

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