Analysis of affecting factor the villagers tends to use medicinal plants with indigenous knowledge approach (Case study: Zoeram Dehestan of Shirvan)

Regarding various side-effects of chemical medicine today, we witness modern people’s everyday widespread tendency, especially in rural areas where people are very close to nature, toward using home-made remedies and herbal medicine. Present study has an applied format in purpose and its approach is descriptive-analytical. Statistical population of this study includes all rural families (N=2095) in Zooeram - a small city located near Shirvan, Northern Khorassan Razavi – of which we took just 139 families after editing participant samples using Cockran Formula. We established a self-made questionnaire with reliability level of 0.908 using α-Chronbach coefficient. The results show that most people all over the country and also in this area prefer to use and apply medicinal herbs (medical herbs) rather than chemical medicine at least once during their life time, achieving better health results. The main reason behind this idea is oral sayings and chest to chest communication originating from previous generations. Among many effective factors behind this general tendency, we can mention cultural compatibility index and acceptability of human body to these herbal treatments in rural population (37, 39, 93, 39 respectively). Also the rank of village priorities show the extent of individual preferences to be 1 (top rank) in Hossein Abad village and 10 (the lowest rank) in Abd Abad village based on a 20-item Vikor Model.