فهرست

Medicinal plants and natural products in traditional medicine

Since the majority of plants have therapeutic capabilities and various biological effects, almost every civilization has collected its knowledge and experience regarding the different uses of plants and natural products, and the many effects of today’s drugs have been introduced by the traditional medicine schools in term of their own definition related to their era.

It seems selecting plants by relying on long-term use of human, along with biological assessment methods, is very useful. Traditional medicine systems believe in combining a variety of known natural therapeutic factors rather than seeking to discover new chemical structure. Drug discovery does not necessarily mean discovering a new molecule. Many analysts believe that single-drug approach may be unstable in the future for managing the polygenic conditions and syndromes, there has been tendency towards re-formulations. Rational design of multi-plant formulations can be used for multi-purpose treatment or prevention. Schools of traditional medicine, including Iran traditional medicine, with thousands years of history, contain theories based on which formulation components containing multi-plant, effect synergistically. In addition, there is now growing evidence that shows by using the traditional medicine approach and clinical observation, better/deeper understanding of many drug molecules is gained. The spread of traditional herbal formulations is effective, safe, having synergic effect and standard based on robust scientific evidence can be a good alternative for today’s treatments which also saves the time and money. Iran traditional medicine, as a dynamic and therapeutic holistic school, is rich in rudimentary experiences and knowledge-centered, in addition to providing different therapeutic materia medica effects, and contains professional hybrid versions. This school has a considerable potential in treating chronic diseases which generally have more than one cause. Updating traditional medicine forms with the use of quality control practices and designing optimal formulations while maintaining the effects of traditional medicine principles, contributed greatly to the discovery of new drugs. And therefore, by establishing a strong link between therapeutic system of Iran traditional medicine, academia and the pharmaceutical industry, and their association with scientific and evidence-based methods, more considerable steps will be taken to improve pharmacotherapy.