An Evidence-based Review of Medicinal Plants used in Traditional Persian Medicine for Treatment of Osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is known to be the leading cause of pain and disability in the elderly. The prevalence of this disease in adults over 60 years was 9.6% in men and 18% in women. The therapeutic goals of this disease generally include pain relief with the least side effects, improvement of articular function and improvement of life, in which pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments are performed in different protocols. Due to the common side effects of pain relievers and complaints after invasive joint surgeries, there is a growing interest in the use of Traditional and Complementary protocols in OA treatment. In this paper, different sources of Traditional Persian Medicine (TPM) were searched to obtain any evidence evaluating any medicinal plants in the management of OA. Over 250 effective medicinal plants for the treatment of OA have been introduced in these sources, and by searching electronic databases including PubMed and Scopus, we have found that of these plants, 39 have direct or indirect evidence in the treatment of this complication by different mechanism of actions such as effect on Body mass index (BMI), obesity and dyslipidemia, anti-inflammatory, anti-nociceptive and antioxidant activity. The most important medicinal plants with direct evidence in the management of OA are Allium sativum, Commiphora mukul, Linum usitatissimum, Matricaria chamomilla, Nigella sativa, Zingiber officinale, and Piper nigrum. Medicinal plants seem to be a valuable source for discovering and identifying new drugs for treatment of OA; however, since most of the studies are preclinical, further clinical trials are required to achieve more conclusive results.

The Role of Nutrition and Edible Medicinal Plants in the Treatment of Chronic Wounds Based on the Principles of Iranian Traditional Medicine.

BACKGROUND: Skin is the body's first defense against stressful factors. Skin wounds are caused by the loss of connection in the skin and recovery requires cellular and biochemical reactions. Chronic wounds arise from the lack of physiological processes and the disease due to complications (e.g. infection and amputation) has devastating consequences on societies. According to the principles of Iranian traditional medicine (ITM), these disorders can be treated in a step-by-step procedure. METHODS: This is a systematic review study that involved gathering data from three traditional medical textbooks, namely Canon of Medicine, Tib-e-Akbari and Exir-e-Azam with the keyword "chronic wound" or "ghorha". In the next step, few tables were developed for nutrition measures as well as edible and topical medicinal herbs. Electronic databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane library were searched for relevant articles and those related to effective medicinal herbs in the treatment of wounds were obtained. RESULTS: Depending on appearance and secretions, wounds are divided into two categories, namely simple and compound wounds. The prognostic factors are based on the age, weight, accompanied disease, as well as the quality and quantity of the wound secretions. Wound treatments include medical nutrition therapy, edible medications, and manipulation therapies. Patient's diet is very important and oral medications have a major role in the whole body detoxification. Topical medications are used together with the above-mentioned treatments; noting that without detoxification, these medications are not effective entirely. CONCLUSION: Wound healing requires physiological processes within the body. From the perspective of ITM, body detoxification is the first medical step, after which topical medications could lead to a better wound healing result.