Explanation of the Functioning of Oral Emmenagogues in Traditional Iranian Medicine

Emmenagogues in Traditional Iranian Medicine are called "Moder Heiz" or "Moder Tams" and are prescribed for the treatment of some cases of menstrual bleeding cessation. Full comprehension of Traditional Iranian Medicine treatment requires a deep understanding of how drugs work in this medical doctrine. The purpose of this article is to explain how emmenagogues work in Traditional Iranian Medicine and to come up with a series of general rules for how they affect menstrual bleeding.  "Moder Heiz" or "Moder Tams" were extracted from valid Traditional Iranian medicine books, their quality and performance were studied and collected and the findings were presented in the form of a general rule in this paper.  "Moder Heiz" drugs with two effects cause menstrual bleeding: One with changes made to the blood make it ready to go out and the other by opening the path of blood. To prepare the blood for excite it is necessary to create "taskhin" and "taltif" and "tahrik" in the blood. For these actions it is essential that the predominant quality of the drug is warm. For opening the pathway it is necessary that drug be "mofatteh" and for "taftih" it is necessary that the "latif" essence be dominant in drug. The only drug that has any other act is "khollar" which by creating soda blood and forcing nature to expel such blood causes menses.  "Moder Heiz" drugs all have the subtle (latif) essence and warm quality, and are useful only in cases where cessation of menstrual bleeding is due to the concentration and coldness of blood. Therefore other drugs which do not have these characteristics, but cause menstrual bleeding in cases where cessation of menstrual bleeding is due to other causes, are not called "Moder Heiz".