A Survey on the Situation of Traditional Iranian Medicine and its History in Iranian Herbal Research

Iran, a great country with a rich valuable history, has a unique herbal coverage for its special climate. Iranian scientists had a great role in the development of science before and after the advent of Islam such that even Western scientists and researchers in their efforts to introduce Greece and Western world as the cradle of civilization and science could not disregard the great role of Iranian scientists. Persian medicine dates back to many centuries before Christ and based on western documents of the history of science, it is of founders of Greek medicine. Investigation of the situation of traditional Iranian medicine and its history in the Iranian herbal research is the aim of present article.
Some sources on the scientific history of Iran were studied. Valid scientific data sourced such as PubMed, Scopus and Wiley were also searched limited to Iran. All Iranian herbal research were collected and reviewed.
Findings: Although some noteworthy efforts have been made to introduce the history of Persian traditional medicine and Iranian herbal medicine, it seems that these issues have not been adequately respected. For instance, there is no international and Iranian data bank for the vegetation or herbal medicines of Iran. Furthermore, it hasn’t been found any book on endemic plants to Iran or to a province of Iran.
The properly recognition and understanding of Iranian traditional medicine as an independent medicine to the international community needs national management and planning, as well as efforts and notions of respected Iranian scientists and researchers to the historical background of Persian medicine and to the identification and introduction of medicinal herbs endemic to Iran.