Babak Baharvand-Ahmadi
1, Majid Asadi-Samani
2*1 Madani Heart Hospital, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran
2 Student Research Committee, Medical Plants Research Center, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran
Abstract
Nowadays, cardiovascular diseases are highly prevalent in human communities. Hypertension is a multifactorial disease which causes a mortality twice higher than general population. Given the fact that medicinal plants have long been used to treat hypertension and are currently being administered for this disease, we sought to report the mostly effective and important medicinal plants on hypertension therapy in ethno-botanical evidence of Iran. In this study, hypertension, Iran, ethno-botany, medicinal plants, and traditional medicine were used as key words to search in Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, EBSCO and EMBASE to select relevant articles. The findings of this study indicated that in Iran 40 plants in various provinces are used to treat hypertension. Because medicinal plants in this study contain effective compounds and have long been used to treat and reduce hypertension, they could provide suitable research arrangements for controlling hypertension, while effective natural drugs could be developed to control hypertension if their properties are confirmed in pharmacological studies.
Implication for health policy/practice/research/medical education:
The medicinal plants may prevent or treat various diseases through exerting antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Since they have long been applied to treat and reduce hypertension, they can be used to develop effective and natural drugs to control high blood pressure, however, their effect should confirm by pharmacological investigations and clinical trials.
Please cite this paper as: Baharvand-Ahmadi B, Asadi-Samani M. Medicinal plants and treatment of hypertension; evidence from Iran. J Nephropharmacol. 2017;6(1):3-8.