By Eric Rumsey and Janna Lawrence<\/p>\n
In our earlier article<\/a> on searching for plant-based foods (PBF) in PubMed, we suggested that a quick way to search the subject is to combine the MeSH Plants explosion AND our Food-Diet-Nutrition (FDN) hedge<\/a>. This works quite well, especially for citations after 2002. In that year the Plants<\/i> explosion was greatly expanded by the addition of several hundred new MeSH plant names. Before that, articles on specific plants were indexed inconsistently. Sometimes they were put under the plant family name, in which case they were included in the Plants<\/i> explosion, and in other cases they were indexed under other terms like Vegetables<\/i>, Fruit<\/i>, or Plants, Edible<\/i>, that are not in the Plants<\/i> explosion.<\/p>\n In order to do the most inclusive search for plant-based foods, including citations before 2002, we have created two hedges, to be used for all the years in PubMed. These hedges include other MeSH terms and text-words, to supplement the plant-name search strategy that works well after 2002. We have done fairly thorough testing of the two hedges, and we recommend the first hedge for most searches. It uses MeSH terms, and it emphasizes \u201cprecision,\u201d which means that it gets somewhat fewer citations, but the citations are more likely to be on target. For both of the hedges, we\u2019ve combined them in an OR search with the simple \u201cPlants AND FDN\u201d hedge search mentioned above.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the first hedge<\/b>, with the newly added terms in boldface:<\/p>\n (Vegetables [mesh] OR Fruit [mesh] OR Cereals [mesh] OR Plants, Edible [mesh] OR Soybeans [mesh] OR Dietary Fiber [mesh] OR Flour [mesh] OR Bread [mesh] OR Diet, Vegetarian [mesh] OR Nuts [mesh] OR Condiments [mesh] OR Vegetable Proteins [mesh]<\/b>) OR (Plants [mesh] AND (food OR foods OR beverages OR diet OR dietary OR vitamin OR vitamins OR nutrition OR nutritional OR nutrition disorders OR food industry OR nutritional physiological phenomena OR dietary fats OR dietary proteins OR feeding behavior))<\/p>\n [Number of citations, 8.19.14 – 265,126]<\/p>\n To use this search, click <\/b>this link<\/b><\/a>. You can also copy the text above and paste it into the PubMed search box. If you have a personal \u201cMy NCBI\u201d account in PubMed, the hedge search can be saved for later use, or it can be made into a search filter. For information on setting up and using saved searches, see here<\/a>; for more information on filters, see here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Commentary on terms in this hedge (If the \u201cYear introduced\u201d is not given, the term has been in MeSH since its launch in 1966):<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the second hedge<\/b>, with the newly added terms in boldface:<\/p>\n (fruit OR fruits OR vegetable OR vegetables OR cereal OR cereals OR spices OR condiments OR flour OR nut OR nuts OR vegetarian OR soy OR soybean OR soybeans OR bread<\/b>) OR (Plants [mesh] AND (food OR foods OR beverages OR diet OR dietary OR vitamin OR vitamins OR nutrition OR nutritional OR nutrition disorders OR food industry OR nutritional physiological phenomena OR dietary fats OR dietary proteins OR feeding behavior))<\/p>\n [Number of citations, 8.19.14 – 332,351]<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/a>Citations: 84411
\nAn explosion that includes about 25 specific vegetables, including Onions<\/i>, Soybeans<\/i>, Daucus carota<\/i>, and Solanum tuberosum<\/i>. This is a relatively small proportion of all vegetables, which are indexed with their species or family name, in the Plants<\/i> explosion.<\/li>\n
\n<\/a>Citations: 57179
\nNotably, this is NOT an explosion. All particular fruit types are indexed with their species or family name, in the Plants<\/i> explosion.<\/li>\n
\n<\/a>Citations: 73516
\nAn explosion that includes 8 cereals, including Avena sativa<\/i>, Triticum<\/i> and Zea mays<\/i>. This is an important group, since it includes the world\u2019s staple foods–wheat, rice, and corn.<\/li>\n
\n<\/a>Citations: 38945
\nAn explosion that includes several terms elsewhere in this hedge that get more citations when they\u2019re searched separately. The term Plants, Edible<\/i> by itself gets 5402 citations.<\/li>\n
\n<\/a>Year introduced: 1986
\nCitations: 19284
\nAn explosion that includes Soy Foods<\/i>, Soy Milk<\/i>, and Soybean Proteins<\/i>.<\/li>\n
\n<\/a>Year introduced: 1982(1977)
\nCitations: 13468<\/li>\n
\n<\/a>Citations: 3570<\/li>\n
\n<\/a>Citations: 3115<\/li>\n
\n<\/a>Year introduced: 2003(1963)
\nCitations: 2537<\/li>\n
\n<\/a>Citations: 2074<\/li>\n
\n<\/a>Citations: 1945
\nAn explosion that includes Spices<\/i>.<\/li>\n
\n<\/a>Year introduced: 1975
\nCitations: 1515<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n