Ethnopharmacological studies of medicinal plants in central Zagros, Lorestan Province, Iran

Lorestan Province (Iran) has a great diversity of habitats and plant diversity and the people living in this province have a good knowledge of herbal therapies. In this study, the authors aimed to identify and report the medicinal plants used in the folk medicine of Lorestan. The indigenous medicinal information was collected with a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire, interviews, and personal observations. The relative importance of the species were estimated through frequency of citations (FC). and discussion : A total of 555 plants belonging to 91 families were identified. The plants belong to Asteraceae with 62 species followed by Lamiaceae (56), Apiaceae (44), Fabaceae (41), and Brassicaceae (31). The plants were mostly used as a decoction or eaten raw (32%). Leaves (22%) were the most utilized plant parts followed by shoots (16%), and seeds (13%). Thymus daenensis, Thymus eriocalyx, Mentha longifolia, Mentha spicata, Mentha piperitha, Alium sativum, Quercus infectoria, Quercus persica, Ziziphora clinopodioides, and Malus domestica had the highest FC values. Most of the plants were used for gastrointestinal, respiratory, and skin problems. Lorestan is a region rich in medicinal plants. The local knowledge of herbal therapies can be used as complementary medicine, particularly by people in remote areas and as a guide for the future pharmacological and phytochemical studies. While the known medicinal plants can be harvested or cultivated for medical and pharmaceutical purposes, the less known plants with high FC scores can be investigated phytochemically and pharmacologically in the future studies.