Useful Medicinal Plants for Kidney Introduced in Makhzan al-Adviyah; A Famous Persian Medicine Source for Materia Medica

Traditional medicine has a long history of use in health maintenance and in disease prevention and treatment in different countries. Persian medicine (PM) is an old system rich in information about medicinal plants. Persian scientists have explained their beliefs about world phenomena by theory of quadruple temperaments as hot, cold, dry and moist. Makhzan al-Adviyah is one of the main PM herbal pharmacopeias. In this study, the useful medicinal plants for kidney, their temperament and suggested application were extracted from Makhzan al-Adviyah. Results obtained from this research showed that 66 plants with exact scientific name were mentioned in this pharmacopeia for kidney diseases. 65% of these plants have hot and dry temperaments which may be useful for restoring misbalanced temperaments of kidney diseases. From these plants, Pistacia lentiscus L. and Origanum vulgare L. showed beneficial effects to improve kidney disease through cellular and animal studies. Considering the long history and effectiveness of PM in the treatment of diseases, medicinal plants that presented in this study have important value for more research especially well designed clinical trials.