چكيده لاتين :
Background: The identification of therapeutic properties of medicinal plants, as well as advers effects of modern treatments has encouraged people to use medicinal plants. Many studies have been done about medicinal plants and their therapeutic properties, but a systematic review on these studies seems necessary. So the aim of this study was to systematically review literatures reported on the use of the herbal medicine to determine the genus of the most frequently used herbs in alternative medicines and the diseases under treatment.
Materials and Methods: Systematic searches were done in the Medline, Pubmed, Sciencedirect and Springer databases. Each database was searched from Jan 2000 until Jan 2008 keywords: herbal medicine, herb medicine, phytotherapy and extract medicine and 78 b2 papers were found and studied. Systematic reviews and meta - analysis were included and no language restrictions were imposed to find the genus of commonly used herbs and studied diseases. The findings were evaluated according to frequency of usage.
Results: 11.5% of the reviewed articles reported 8 plants which are: Ginseng, Salvia, Ginkgo biloba, Hypericum, Garlic, Ginger, Aloe vera and Marijuana. According to findings neurologic, inflammatory - immunogenic, digestive and urinary - kidney diseases are the most interested fields in herbal medicine. Although most of the reviewed articles (89.2%) showed a positive effect but side effects of herbal medicine are reported in the others and also need to furthermore works was mentioned as a necessity in 54.6% of them.
Conclusion: According to the present findings, herbal medicine has historically been efficacious in the treatment and management of many health problems. The ultimate purpose of the herbal medicine is to develop an effective and safe system of medicine for human. Although the success of their use is increasing, but a great deal of researches are required and as a result herbal medicines should be used with caution by patients and physicians.
