Medical Treatment of Cancer in Traditional Iranian Medicine

Cancer is the second cause of death throughout the world. Treatment of cancers is so complicated. Moreover، discovery of novel anticancer drugs with high effectiveness، low toxicity، selective effect on cells، at reasonable costs is a major concern of the pharmaceutical industry. Referring to the traditional medicine and using the information available in it is a reliable start point in methodology of drug discovery. Although etiology and treatment of cancer in the Traditional Iranian Medicine (TIM) is different from those in the modern medicine، medical treatment is one of the main foundations of cancer treatment in the TIM. It seems that drugs، especially those of the plant origin used in the TIM could be an appropriate initiative to achieve in research projects aiming at development of new anti-cancer drugs. With regard to their origin، the drugs used in the TIM are classified into plant، inorganic، and animal drugs. In the literature review of the study، we respectively found 201، 47، and 28 drugs of plant، animal، and inorganic origin for treatment of cancer. Among the 201 plant drugs، we selected 48 plants. In this study، we chose the plants for which anti-cancer properties have been mentioned in the TIM and then described their characteristics. The plants selected for treatment of cancer were chosen from the books Al-Hawi (Rhazes)، the Canon in medicine (Avicenna)، Makhzan-Al Advieh (Aghili Khorasani)، and Ikhtiyarat-e- Badi’ei (Ansari Shirazi). Furthermore، we introduced the plants with known anti-cancer effects in modern medicine. It has been shown that many plants used in the TIM contain antioxidant agents or show anti-cancer effects on cell lines or in animal studies. The 48 plants evaluated in the study are some examples of this. Many of these plants have not undergone accurate laboratory investigations.