Research centre based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew investigating useful and potentially useful plants.
Information resource bases include:
a) Enquiry service on the uses of plants, with differential charging according to client (e.g. free to members of public and those in developing countries, full rates for commercial organisations).
(b) Economic Botany Bibliographic Database: covering the uses of plants from around the world (excluding major crop species). 160,000 keyworded references date from mid 19th century to present; c. 2000 added/year. Includes food, medical and fuel uses.
c) Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPESAL): database of information on some 6300 dryland species, with particular focus on Africa.
See WWW site with information on CEB programmes (e.g. including usage of plants on Northeastern Brazil (Plantas do Nordeste), links to the People and Plants Programme (an ethnobotanical approach to conservation and comunity development), and the Economic Botany Collections (plant-derived products and artefact from all round the world, some on permanent exhibition in Plants+People exhibition at Kew).