Objective:To identify the medicinal plants effective in infectious diseases.
Methods: Initially, we obtained a list of herbalists and traditional healers from Food and Drug Deputy. Direct observations and interviews as well as collection of herbarium specimens of indigenous medicinal plants effective in infectious diseases of urinary tract, reproductive, digestive, respiratory and skin systems were performed. This study was conducted through questionnaires and interviews; the questionnaires were distributed among traditional healers and simultaneous interviews were also run. The plants were herbariumized, herbarium specimens were authenticated, and their species were determined by using reliable flora and other sources. Finally, the data were input into Excel 2010 and analyses were performed.
Results: Out of the studied plants, 35 native medicinal plants belonging to 17 families were effective in the treatment of various diseases and infections. In this study, the Lamiaceae family had the highest frequency of plants for the treatment of infections. Traditional healers of Urmia in 24% of cases used the leaves of medicinal herb to treat patients. In 68% of cases, they prescribed medicinal herbs in the boiled forms. Most medicinal herbs showed therapeutic effect on the digestive system.
Conclusions: Traditional medicinal sources, valuable knowledge of traditional healers in Urmia, the scientific investigation of the effects of the herbs offered in this study and their effects in traditional medicine may provide a good source for new drugs in modern medicine.

Many native plants in traditional medicine have been used for the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis and the recent clinical trials have proven the efficacy of some of them. Researches conducted on these plants have shown that garlic, shallots, wormwood, yarrow, walnuts, thyme, henna plant, mimosa, aloe, wood betony, medlar, periwinkle, yeah, savory, black beans, etc. are effective on cutaneous leishmania. Synthetic agents in Iranian market have some disadvantages such as high cost and side effects and are painful in injections. Given the effectiveness of these plants, they can be a source of natural and safe compounds for the treatment of Leishmania. Therefore, more clinical researches should be done to determine the effectiveness and safety of these medicinal plants, their active ingredients and their possible toxic substances which can lead to the production of effective and safe drugs for leishmaniasis. It also might be an effective way to prepare herbal ointment on wound healing.

Borage (Borago officinalis) is an annual herb which is cultivated for medicinal and culinary uses, although it is commercially cultivated for borage seed oil. Borage seed oil is the plant rich in the gamma-linolenic acid (26%-38%) which is used as dietary or food supplement. Other than seed oil it contains a lot of fatty acids such as linoleic acid (35%-38%), oleic acid (16%-20%), palmitic acid (10%-11%), stearic acid (3.5%-4.5%), eicosenoic acid (3.5%-5.5%) and erucic acid (1.5%-3.5%). It is used for the treatment of various diseases such as multiple sclerosis, diabetes, heart diseases, arthritis and eczema. In this study different aspects of borage such as plant characteristics, production, applications in traditional medicine, clinical considerations, its effects on patients' blood and urine biochemistry, and also the effect of the its products on liver and kidney performance tests are presented using published articles in scientific sites.

Anxiety and depression are highly comorbid psychiatric conditions that the prevalence will be increased to the second greatest risk of morbidity, causing a significant socioeconomic burden. Due to side effects and destructive effects of some chemical drugs, many patients prefer herbal medicines to treat diseases. Although there are key review papers in the area of medicinal plants and psychiatry disorders, they have either covered the area in a relatively cursory manner or focused on a specific plant medicine. In the present study, we tried to present the effect of most important medicinal plants on two important highly comorbid psychiatric conditions-anxiety and depression.

Diabetes mellitus can damage the eyes, kidneys, nerves and heart. Microvascular and macrovascular disorders are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients. Hyperglycemia can increase the indicators of lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress in which free radicals have the main role in the pathogenesis of these complications. Therefore, antioxidants which combat oxidative stress should be able to prevent and repair free radicals induced damages. Although free radicals contribute to kidney damage, atherosclerosis, diabetes, heart disease, nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity; however, clinical trials do not uniquely confirm a substantial impact on diabetic damage. It seems that antioxidants in vegetables, fruits and grains help preventing diabetes complications; however, there is little evidence that taking single antioxidants such as vitamin E or vitamin C protect these complications. The findings about combination antioxidants are also complicated and not entirely clear. In this review paper we tried to present the role of oxidative stress on micro-vascular complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Other objective of this paper is to review the new findings about the role of various antioxidants on prevention and treatment of diabetes mellitus as well as its complications including retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy.

Objective: To identify the medicinal plants effective in infectious diseases. Methods: Initially, we obtained a list of herbalists and traditional healers from Food and Drug Deputy. Direct observations and interviews as well as collection of herbarium specimens of indigenous medicinal plants effective in infectious diseases of urinary tract, reproductive, digestive, respiratory and skin systems were performed. This study was conducted through questionnaires and interviews; the questionnaires were distributed among traditional healers and simultaneous interviews were also run. The plants were herbariumized, herbarium specimens were authenticated, and their species were determined by using reliable flora and other sources. Finally, the data were input into Excel 2010 and analyses were performed. Results: Out of the studied plants, 35 native medicinal plants belonging to 17 families were effective in the treatment of various diseases and infections. In this study, the Lamiaceae family had the highest frequency of plants for the treatment of infections. Traditional healers of Urmia in 24% of cases used the leaves of medicinal herb to treat patients. In 68% of cases, they prescribed medicinal herbs in the boiled forms. Most medicinal herbs showed therapeutic effect on the digestive system. Conclusions: Traditional medicinal sources, valuable knowledge of traditional healers in Urmia, the scientific investigation of the effects of the herbs offered in this study and their effects in traditional medicine may provide a good source for new drugs in modern medicine.

Parasites and parasitic diseases are widely spread in the world. Their adverse effects on health and social-economic society cause tremendous public health problems. Parasitic infections in different ways (water, soil, food and vegetables) can affect humans and induce other complications such as gastrointestinal disorders, malnutrition, anemia and allergies and sometimes even life threatening. Medicinal plants are being widely used, either as a single drug or in combination with synthetic drugs. These medicinal plants are considered as a valuable source of unique natural products and drugs for development of medicines against various disorders and diseases. In this article the recently published papers about medicinal plants and parasites were reviewed, using scientific sites such as Medline, PubMed and Google Scholar. The used terms included: herbal medicine, medicinal plants, and antihelmintic drugs, antinematoda, anticestoda, antitrematoda. From the above collected literature it might be concluded that these plants are promising potential sources for preparation of new drugs or for pharmacological and therapeutic applications.

Objective: To collect and document information on anti-diabetic plants traditionally used in the treating of diabetes in Urmia at Northwest Iran because ethnomedicines are considered as valuable sources to find new potential drugs. Methods: We used the method of direct observation and interview (35 traditional healers) along with gathering herbarium specimens mentioned plants in site. Results: There were 30 medicinal plants from 17 families for the treatment of diabetes. The family with most plants was Lamiaceae (20%). Leaves (20%) are often used and its form is decoction (70%). It was also found that Citrullus colocynthis has the most frequency of use among traditional healers. Conclusions: Furthermore, base on current findings many of the mentioned plants have potential active ingredients to influence diabetes.

Numerous side effects of synthetic drugs have caused medicinal plants to be regarded in recent decades as a reliable source of new drugs. Regarding the analgesic effects of many plants that are pointed in traditional medicine of Iran, many studies have been performed in this field that have caused need to be reviewed. In this study, different methods of testing pain, analgesic activity and possible compounds of medicinal plants and also the possible mechanisms actions of these plants are presented. The data presented in this review paper provide scientific information that might be used for isolation of potentially active compounds from some of these medicinal plants in future.

Objective: To identify, present and review the respiratoty medicinal plants which used by Urmian herbalists. Methods: The list of traditional healers of West Azarbaijan Province was prepared and data were obtained by direct observation, interviews and the questionnaires After that, herbarium samples were collected from the desired area and deposited in herbarium unit of the Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran. Results: Our results demonstrated that 20 medicinal plants from 10 plant families are used to treat respiratory disorders. Also, the most plant part that used for treating of respiratory disorders was seed (27%) and the most traditional form prescribed by herbalists was boiled (54%). Forty three percentage of Urmia herbalists have used herbs for the treatment of cough. Conclusions: People in this area have a strong belief that plants have a positive impact in the treatment of respiratory disorders and they have used medicinal plants since ancient times to treat these disorders. Our study revealed the importance of herbal medicines and traditional medicine in this area as medicinal resource for drug discovery in future.