Ethnopharmacology of Medicinal Plants in the Southwest of Mond Mountain

Ethnopharmacology has been seen as a multidisciplinary approach for novel drug discovery by providing valuable data about medicinal plants in different cultures. The aim of this ethnopharmacological study was to identify medicinal plants in the Southwest of Mond Mountain in the North of Persian Gulf.
The medical uses of medicinal plants were gathered from 20 local informants by face to face interviews. The relative frequency of citation (FRC) and cultural importance (CI) indices were calculated.
A total of 116 medicinal plants belonging to 65 families were identified. Zataria multiflora, Achillea eriophora DC, Foeniculum vulgare, Teucrium polium, Haplophyllum tuberculatum, Cuminum cyminum, Plantago psyllium, Nigella sativa and Aleo vera had the highest cultural importance indices. Zataria multiflora, Foeniculum vulgare , Nigella sativa, Cuminum cyminum and Achillea eriophora DC had the highest FRC indices. The highest medical uses were for gastrointestinal diseases, gynecological diseases, metabolic disorders, respiratory disorders and infectious diseases, respectively.
There is a vast variety of medicinal plants in the Southwest of Mond Mountain. Although most of therapeutic applications of these plants in this region are the same as Iran’s traditional medicine, but the people in the Southwest of Mond Mountain use some of these plants for some diseases which are unique for this region. Forexample, the native people of this region used Zataria multiflora, Achillea eriophora DC, Foeniculum vulgare and Haplophyllum tuberculatum for abdominal pain, Nigella sativa for postpartum complications, Aleo vera for hyperlipidemia, Plantago psyllium for drainage of abscesses, Haplophyllum tuberculatum for infectious diseases and muscular pain and Foeniculum vulgare for jaundice. Thus, investigation about these plants should be initiated to discover novel drugs for clinical applications.