[Online information system for -phytotherapy in animals].

INTRODUCTION: Phytotherapy becomes increasingly popular in veterinary medicine. To fully exploit the therapeutic potential of medicinal plants and ensure their safe use, knowledge about the effective plant parts and preparations is required. Improper use and overdosage of medicinal plants can be toxic. With www.phytoarznei.ch, we provide an online decision support aid that allows for the retrieval of currently available information on medicinal plants and their use in domestic animals. This decision support system is based on the available literature in the field, which after critical evaluation has been incorporated into a structured database. For each medicinal plant or drug, we have listed therapeutic indications, different application types, organoleptic properties, plant ingredients, pharmacological effects, dosages, duration of treatment, toxicity, legal frame for use in livestock and relevance for doping. A user-friendly access to all data is achieved by means of two search programs, either by entering the plant name or name of the drug in a search field or by selecting the desired animal species and therapeutic application from respective drop-down lists. This database on medicinal plant applications in animals is linked to the poisonous plant database of the University of Zurich and, for marketed preparations, to the Swiss compendium of veterinary medicinal products as well as to an index of related veterinary products.