PubMed is the online, searchable index of articles published in scientific journals. Except it's hard to search.

Jonathan Byron wrote software to automatically search PubMed for studies mentioning herbal and natural remedies, and then turn them into a scannable or searchable list. The result is Shrubmed, and it's great.

You can now click on the Shrubmed link to "oxytocin" and immediately see a list of all the herbs and natural substances that have been studied for their connection to oxytocin, and then click through to the abstracts of the actual studies. This is really going to help me out!

Jonathan says he wrote the code because he needed the tool and it didn't exist. He says Shrubmed is like a sieve for prospecting, making it easier to find some fascinating nuggets among the reams of inconclusive studies.If you want to send him some love, or suggest a new query, comment on the Shrubmed Blog.

Jonathan also writes Aphrodisiology, about, what else? Did you know truffles were an aphrodisiac?

Thanks, Jonathan!