Purgatives, the Most Important Drug Group in Traditional Iranian Medicine-I

Traditional Iranian Medicine (TIM) has an outstanding history with numerous medical textbooks. Similar to other medical schools, in TIM, drugs are used in treatment of diseases. One of these drug groups is purgative agents. These drugs were used to excrete putrefied temperaments, or extra materials from the patients’ body. In the current study, different information on the categories, route of administration, and mechanism of effect of this drug category was collected from different sources of TIM, including the manuscripts, printed texts, and electronic books. In this way, a collection of purgatives used in TIM was established, and the effects of these drugs in excretion of different temperaments from the viewpoint of TIM hakims, as well as the indications for administration of the drugs were evaluated. As it has been mentioned in TIM sources, refinement of the body from putrefied temperaments or extra materials is one of the major treatment methods in TIM. Understanding this treatment method and the drugs used for this purpose can be considered as a component of treatment process in different clinical studies. This can even lead to cure of patients as an alternative or complementary approach along with the current treatment methods.