Ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants of Iranshahr in Sistan and Baluchestan Province

Ethnobotany is a branch of traditional knowledge that deals with the recognition of the role of the plants of a region in the knowledge of the indigenous people of that region, and in fact, it is the recovery of unwritten traditions that are in danger of being destroyed. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the medicinal plants of Iranshahr region and to use the knowledge and experience of local people to introduce the properties and unknown aspects of the medicinal plants in question. This study was conducted by identifying the medicinal species of Iranshahr region of Sistan and Baluchestan Province and introducing their traditional uses.

This study was conducted in Iranshahr city from April to September 2021, studying beliefs, popular information and documentary studies of medicinal plants via interviews with local people. By determining the importance of medicinal species and showing the homogeneity of information, two methods including use value (UV) and informant consensus factor (ICF) were used.

In this research, 71 species of 35 plant families were identified. Among the identified medicinal plants species, cinnamon and thyme had the highest use value (UV). The highest consensus of the informants (IFC) was in the group of sore throat (0.1) and leg pain (0.1), followed by toothache (0.84) and gynecological diseases (0.84).

Registered plants are mainly used to treat infectious problems, pain, gynecological diseases. kidney diseases and diabetes. Existence of 71 species of medicinal plants in Iranshahr shows the richness of this region in terms of medicinal plants, and knowledge of these local treatments can be a strategy to achieve new medicinal uses and development of new drugs.