Objective: Medicinal plants organize an effective source of folk and modern medicine. Correct identification, authentication and quality control are essential to ensure safety, therapeutic potency, efficacy and reproducible quality of herbal medicines. The aim of this study is to use taxonomic method for authentication of traditional herbal drugs which are commonly sold in herbal shops in Iran. In this regard, twenty-seven cases of herbal drugs suspected to be adulterated were investigated.Material and Methods: CRUDE raw material of herbal drugs was prepared from the various markets in Iran and was identified at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Herbarium (FUMH(.Results: Taxonomic evaluation revealed that 78 species belonging to 21 families which are traded in Iranian market should be considered as authentic, adulterated and substituted samples.Conclusion: It was concluded that nowadays, many of the medicinal plants available in the market have ambiguous identification along with adulteration and contamination. The present study provides awareness amongst the traders, researchers, clinicians and manufacturing units about the ambiguity of authenticity in the traded herbal raw materials.

Background: Liver injury or dysfunction is considered as a serious health problem. The available synthetic drugs to treat liver disorders are expensive and cause further damage. Hence, hepatoprotective effects of some herbal drugs have been investigated, and one of the methods to choose HERBS in order to study their biological effects is to search in ancient medical texts. Avicenna who is known as the prince of physicians had collected and classified Greek, Persian and Islamic medicine in the best possible way in the book of Canon in Arabic.Objectives: Avicenna’s book of The Canon of Medicine was reviewed to find the hepatoprotective HERBS.Patients and Methods: Three different versions of the Canon were prepared and utilized. To find scientific names of plants we took advantage of three botany references. All of the HERBS were investigated on the basis of scientific data from hepatoprotective effects point of view. The searched term was "hepatoprotective" without narrowing and limiting. The searched databases included Cochrane library, Web of science, SID, Irandoc and Iran Medex.Results: 18 plants were found.85% of the presented species, genus or families of plants were reported to have hepatoprotective properties and in the remaining 15% there were no reports of hepatoprotective effect. Flowers and fruits were the most used part of the plants. Most of the plants had simultaneous protective effects on multiple organs but the protective effect on the liver was mostly accompanied by protective effect on the stomach (83%). The average temperament of these HERBS is "hot" in the 2nd phase of the 2nd grade, and "dry" in the 3rd phase of the 2nd grade. Hepatoprotective HERBS mostly prescribed as a part of hepatoprotective compound drugs formula or other formula for liver diseases are Crocus sativus, Pistacia lentiscus, and Cinnamomum spp.Conclusions: Maybe there is common mechanism for protecting both liver and stomach. Aquilaria agallocha, Aquilaria malaccensis, and Ruscus aculeatus whose hepatoprotective effects have not yet been reported are considered as good candidates for future investigations. Given that Crocus sativus, and Cinnamomum spp are used as flavors in most countries, they will be introduced for more investigation in order to produce hepatoprotective drugs.

Atlas of ethnobotany in Iran has been one of the enacted projects of Ecological Anthropology department in Anthropology Research center of Iran Cultural Heritage, Handi Crafts and Tourism Organization Since 2005, which is carried out considering it's 5 years duration. This is on important subject, since indigenous knowledge concerning the use of herbal medicine by indigenous people and healers was considered as an non-material cultural heritage of Iran, a knowledge that is endangered now. In this project, with an anthropological view, we worked on this subject in all over Iran using monographical data. Since this is an interdisciplinary subject some anthropologists, botanists, physicians and pharmacists helped us to achieve the required standardi We have considred 90 species belonging to 68 genera and 37 falily for indigenous healing as part of herbal prototype that we have collected in our archives.

Depression is a life-threatening chronic illness which affects people worldwide. Drugs used to treat this disease have multiple side effects and may cause drug-drug or drug-food interactions. Additionally, only 30% of patients respond adequately to the existing drugs and the remaining do not achieve complete recovery. Thus, finding effective treatments that have adequate efficacy, fewer side effects and lower cost seem to be necessary. The purpose of this study was to review animal and double-blind clinical studies on the anti-depressant effects of medicinal HERBS. In this study, validated scientific articles indexed in PubMed, SID, Web of Science and Scopus databases were reviewed. A database search was performed using the following terms: clinical trials, depression, major depressive disorder, essential oil, extract and medicinal plant. Positive effects of a number of HERBS and their active compounds such as St John’ s-wort, saffron, turmeric, ginkgo, chamomile, valerian, Lavender, Echium amoenum and Rhodiola rosea L. in improvement of symptoms of mild, moderate or major depression have been shown in clinical trials. The above plants show antidepressant effects and have fewer side effects than synthetic drugs. Hence, they have the potential to treat patients with depression.

Herbal medicinal products are not only used for general well - being and to prevent or treat common minor ailments, but they are also used by individuals with serious chronic disease. Nowadays many patients are taking multiple grugs, HERBS and vitamins concurrently which may interact with each other. It is necessary to know about possible herb - drug interactins, because of increasing tendency to using medicinal HERBS all over the world. Interactions usually can be classified as pharmacokinetic (when the absorption, distribution, metabolism or elimination of one substance is affected by another) and pharmacodynamic (including antagonistic and synergistic interactions). An example of pharmacokinetic interaction is inhibition of Lithium absorption by psyllium because of high musilage content. Ginkgo increase anticoagulant activity of warfarin as a synergistic effect. In this article, interactions between 32 HERBS and drugs are reviewed and presented in tables.