arash khoushabi

Cancer is the second cause of mortality in the world causing poor quality of life. Persian Medicine (PM) is mentioned about cancer in details. Many herbs are claimed to be useful in cancer. This paper aimed to search the most common herbal drugs affecting the cancer based on PM literature. This is a review study based on PM literatures and the electronic databases such as Pub Med and Scopus with the terms like herbal drug and cancer. The study found 15 herbs affecting the cancer. Most of these herbs were investigated in the recent studies. It is recommended further evaluation on plants mentioned in PM books, particularly those with no clinical trials or laboratory tests.

Melasma is a skin disorder characterizing by hyperpigmentation affecting the sun-exposed areas. This disorder, accounts for 0.25 to 4% of the patients observed in skin clinics in south East Asia. In spite of several reports according to the relationship between digestive problems such as gastritis with melasma, these disorders are not included in the diagnostic criteria of melasma in the texts. This study aims to find the relationship between digestive problems and melasma. In this study, the relationship between gastric problems and melasma was investigated by searching the Persian medicine references such as the Canon of Medicine by Avicenna and Al-Havi of Razi with the terms such as stomach, melasma (kalaf in the Canon) and also the electronic databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Magiran with the keywords of gastritis, stomach, melasma, hyperpigmentation and digestive problems. This study searched the etiology and symptoms of melasma. The results showed accompaniment between some digestive disorders and melasma in Al-Havi and the Canon as well as in articles retrieved from the electronic databases. However, we noticed poor attention to the relationship between digestive problems and melasma due to attention to various topical creams produced by different companies. Considering the results, it is required to pay attention to systemic aspects such as digestive problems in the treatment of melasma. The researchers suggest doing more studies about these issues to find this relationship to be included in one of the main diagnostic criteria of melasma.

Melasma is a common pigmentary disorder with the incidence of 1.5% - 33.3% worldwide. Targeting the vascular component in melasma lesions may decrease the melanocytic stimulation. Herbal anticoagulants can serve as effective candidates for melasma treatment.

The evidence was gathered in this study by evaluating vascularization as an etiology of melasma and considering the role of herbal anticoagulants in natural vascular treatment. Databases such as PubMed and Scopus were screened and the following keywords were searched: melasma, vascularization, pigmentation, and herbal anticoagulant. These subjects were further investigated in traditional textbooks such as the canon of medicine by Avicenna and Alhavi by Razi. At the end, the results were discussed.

The use of anticoagulants can reduce the clot formation and lower the VEGF release. In this way, vascularization will be reduced, consequently leading to a decrease in melasma occurrence. The researchers of the present study went over the herbal components that were effective for treatment of melasma and found that most of them consisted of anticoagulants such as coumarin.

The effect of herbal anticoagulants (administered orally) on melasma should be evaluated clinically and their combination with topical treatments is suggested