Information on Protabase

• Protabase, the Information Base of PROTA, is searchable on-line in both an English version and a French version.
• The search screen provides a number of possibilities to search Protabase. When a search is submitted a ‘report screen’ will appear with the names of all the plant species corresponding to the search criteria and with a link to the complete articles.
• About 30% of the species have been described with an extended format and only for these more important species a map and a botanical drawing are available.
• ‘Scientific names’ can be searched by using the ‘Word Wheel’ giving a complete alphabetic list of species or by typing the searched name. The same goes for the ‘Vernacular names’ which opens a ‘Terms list’ with all full vernacular names; the ‘Words list’ can be ticked to select a single (part of a) name. Words may be truncated: typing ‘gom*’ will find: ‘gombo’ as well as ‘gommier’. Click here for detailed help on the Word Wheel.
• ‘Uses’ and ‘Geographic distribution’ can be searched with a list which opens by clicking on the small black triangle at the right-hand side of the box. Only one item can be selected from this list. To deselect any item simply click on the first line, which is empty.
• ‘Search for words in All Articles’ searches for matching words throughout the review articles text. It supports searching for characters with accents (like é à î); omitting them will not find the term searched for. Typing ‘cote’ to find ‘Côte d’Ivoire’ will not yield any result, one should type ‘côte’. How to compose these characters depends on your language settings and keyboard settings. A list of most common characters and how to type them in the necessary ANSI characters can be found here.
  Since ‘Search for words in All Articles’ searches for complete words, you have to consider the plural form of a word as well. You can do this by using an asterisk (*); e.g. typing drought* will result in extra articles which exclusive contain the word ‘droughts’.
• After search criteria have been selected, click on the ‘Submit Query’ button to perform the search or click on the ‘Reset’ button to clear all boxes and start a new search. The ‘report screen’ gives the scientific plant names and families with a link to the complete article; the items which were searched for do not show in the ‘report screen’.
• To consult a text-only version, you can change the settings in your browser: MS Internet Explorer: Tools → Internet options → Advanced → Multimedia heading: clear the check box for ‘Show pictures’ or clear all check boxes under the Multimedia heading.
• The ‘Word Wheel’ is only supported when ‘Javascript’ software is installed on your computer. Consult this website for more information.

back to the search page