Pharmacology and Ethnopharmacology

Traditional uses in any step of our life have a sign; especially herbal medicine has been used by people from ancient times. The primary source of remedies is botanical though mineral materials and animals used. In Iran, from a long time ago a number of writings regarding Ethno-pharmacology are left by great physicians e.g. Avicenna or Ibn Sina. He has been described as the father of early modern medicine and Mohammad-e Zakariyya-ye Razi etc. Iran is located in the Middle East and played a key role in connecting various cultures and civilizations that existed along the Silk Road. Also, our traditional medicine had cited pharmaceutical dosage forms, e.g. powders, syrups, ointment, extracts, powders, mucilage’s, nectars, etc. Our botanists have led to the recognition of around 150 spontaneous families of Angiosperms containing 124 Dicotyledonous and 22 Monocotyledonous and 4 Gymnosperms families. Totally contain about 1450 genera and 8000 species which nearby 2000 species are endemic of Iran. In between, these are medicinal and aromatic plants used as herbal medicine in different states or ecologically zone in Iran as Tanacetum parthenium, Thymus vulgaris, Viola tricolor; Vitex agnus-castus, Salix alba, Papaver somniferum, and Plantago lanceolata there is used traditionally. Our ethnic pharmacology survey showed that medicinal plants are still widely used by the population in the most states in Iran where the study was conducted. In main report of treatment, the healers' consensus related to diseases is fairly high which gives an additional validity to the plants as a traditional remedy. As the use of herbal medicines has increased, so too have the reports of suspected toxicity and adverse events. So we mostly take care of using much of them and do not use without prescription. In this presentation I am going to present, The Phyto-chemical screening of some medicinal and aromatic plants, and traditionally patients consuming these plants as herbal remedies, like Chahar tokhm, Peganum harmala, Mainth, Punica granatum, Thymus spp, are reviewed.