A geospatial database management system for the collection of medicinal plants

Abstract

Medicinal plants are increasingly used, both for medical appli-cations and personal healthcare. However, existing herbal database systems for plant retrieval offer only basic information and do not support real-time analysis of the spatial aspects of plan-tations and distribution sites. Moreover, data records are usually static and not publicly available as they rely on costly proprietary software packages. To address these shortcomings, including lim-iting the time needed for collection and data processing, a novel medicinal plants geospatial database management system is pro-posed. The system allows localization of plant sites and data presentation on an interactive heat map displaying spatial information of plants selected by the user within a specific radius from the user’s location, including automatic presentation of an itinerary giving the optimal route between user location and plant destina-tions selected. The approach relies on dynamic and role-based data management, an interactive map that includes graphics and integrated geospatial analyses thanks to cross-platform, geograph- ical a JavaScript library and Google API. Both spatial data and attributes are available in real time. The system would support effective collaboration, among herb farmers, government agen-cies, private investors, healthcare professionals and the general public with regard to various aspects of medicinal plants and their applications.