Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal and edible plants in the Western provinces of Iran: traditional medicine in Lorestan, Kermanshah and Kurdestan

Objective: WHO has recognized the role of Traditional Systems of Medicine and considers them a part of strategy to provide healthcare to the masses. Folk medicines are gaining importance. Much of this wealth of knowledge is being lost as traditional culture is gradually disappearing. Tribal people and ethnic races throughout the world have devebranchesed their own cultures, customs, cults, religious rites, and myths, folk tales and songs, foods, medicinal practices, etc.The aims of this study were to identify, present and review the medicinal plants which used by lori and kurdi herbalists. Methods: The list of traditional healers of Western provinces of Iran was prepared and data were obtained by direct observation, interviews and the questionnaires After that, herbarium samples were collected from the desired area.Resutlts: . According to results, 112 medicinal plants species were identified that locale people were believing they are healing. The most numbers of medicinal plants were belong to the families of Lamiaceae(11 species), Umbelliferae(6 species), Asteraceae(6 species). Weakness, Fever, vomit and Respiratory systems disorder were the kind of disease mentioned with the most number of species, and processed edible plants were the kind of consumption pattern represented by the most number of species. Conclusions:In conclusion, people in this area have a strong belief that plants have a positive impact in the treatment of disorders and they have used medicinal plants since ancient times to treat these disorders. Our study revealed the importance of herbal medicines and traditional medicine in this area as medicinal resource for drug discovery in future.

Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal and edible plants in the Western provinces of Iran: traditional medicine in Lorestan, Kermanshah and Kurdestan Keywords:

Medicinal plants , lorestan , kermanshah , kurdestan