Every year, millions of people worldwide get sick with gastrointestinal diseases such as heartburn. Certain herbs contribute to the alleviation of heartburn, nausea, and improvement of digestion. Moreover, these herbs do not have as many side effects as synthetic drugs. As a health problem and one of the challenging issues in medical sciences, heartburn is common in children and adults worldwide. Hence, in the present study, we tried to report medicinal plants used in cultures and traditions of different regions of Iran to treat heartburn in children and adults. In this review study, articles of Iranian ethnobotanical sources were searched with the keywords of ethnobotanics, heartburn, children, adult, medicinal plants, and Iran. Journal articles published from 2010 to 2019 in several Iranian and International databases, including ISI Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, ISC, Magiran, were searched to find relevant articles and information. Anethum graveolens L., Punica granatum L., Mentha pulegium, Thymus kotschyanus Boiss. & Hohen., Achillea millefolium, Ocimum basilicum, Nigella sativa, etc., are the plants used in different parts of Iran to treat heartburn.

With increased resistance resulting from overusing of chemical-synthetic antibiotics, finding alternative medicines that have antibacterial properties and they have the least side effects on human health appears to be necessary. Many studies have been taken into consideration medicinal plants with antimicrobial properties. The aim of this study was to have an overview of the antibacterial properties of medicinal plants.
In this study, by searching key words as: herbs (Medicinal Plants), anti-bacterial properties of medicinal plants in Iran , antimicrobial properties of medicinal plants in Iran, in scientific articles published in databases as: Iranmedx, Magiran, Google scholar, Ebsco, Pubmed, Science direct, and SID, the required data were obtained.
Many herbs, including Zataria multifora, Urtica dioical, Crocus sativus L., Artemisia Absinthium, Menta piperita, Eucalyptus globules L., Borago officinalis L., Scrophularia desrti, Cuminum cyminum L., Rosmarinus officinalis L., Allium hirtifolium, Castaneifolia- sativa, Allium sativum, Pycnocycla spinose, Juglans Regia, Salvia officinalis L. have strong antibacterial properties against a variety of pathogenic bacteria.
In addition to the various medicinal plants with antimicrobial susceptibility and pathogenic bacteria resistance, antimicrobial properties of these studied medicinal plants could be used as a natural preservative in a variety of foods from these herbs. Thyme and garlic have antibacterial effects on an extensive range of positive and negative gram bacteria through them.

There is a growing interest in understanding the biological effects of time-tested folk medicinal plants including the green leafy vegetables, which supply minerals and vitamins to the diet. Trigonella foenum-graecum L (fenugreek) is a dietary vegetable and there are reports concerning its antinociceptive effects in Iranian traditional medicine. Its seeds are also known for their carminative, tonic, antidiabetic, antineoplastic and restorative properties. These reports and the hypoglycemic effect of fenugreek leaf extract encouraged us to assay fenugreek aqueous extract for cytotoxicity on NIH3T3 mouse fibroblast cells.

There is a crucial need for a scientific view of the field of management and the problems in the medicinal plants’ sector and also a comprehensive study to explore challenges facing the development of this sector. The present study, with a quantitative orientation and using a descriptive–survey method, aimed at identifying challenges facing the development of the medicinal plants’ sector in Iran. The statistical population of the study consisted of experts in the field of medicinal plants and people working in its different parts, 151 of which participated in the study through a purposive sampling method. A researcher -made questionnaire was used as the main research tool to evaluate the two levels of the current situation and the desired situation. The KMO index and Bartlett’s test were used to examine the validity of the questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was approved by calculating Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The results showed that social, economic, human resources and technological, managerial, market and marketing, and environmental factors had the greatest impact on the lack of desirable development of the medicinal plants' sector in Iran, respectively. From the point of view of the respondents, inefficiency and inadequate insurance coverage is the most important challenge for the development of this sector, and the main gap with the desirable situation is arising from limited, inefficiency, and non-targeted subsidies to support production. So, it is recommended to adopt supportive policies such as granting targeted subsidies, tax exemptions for processing and science-based units, various policies to reduce the cost of products with the active participation of producers, and those involved in the planning process for medicinal plants.

In order to collect and determine medicinal plants of Kermanshah province، at first a list of medicinal plants and their localities was prepared based on the floristic list of the Kermanshah province mentioned as medicinal plants in the related references. Then، stands of the mentioned medicinal plants were referred according to the topographic maps and the extracted localities and after collecting medicinal plant specimens، herbarium specimens were prepared based on the traditional taxonomic methods. For each collected plant specimen، habitat characteristics including locality، altitude (elevation above sea level) and the other ecological characteristics of each location were recorded. Furthermore، local names and usable parts were recorded for each species including their local usage. To reassure accordance of the collected specimens with the prepared list of the medicinal plants، their identification and determination were carried out by the present related references. Collected information about each medicinal plant species was recorded in the form attached to the related herbarium specimen. The life forms of the determined medicinal plants were determined based on the Raunkiaer method. Altogether 208 medicinal species belonging to 198 genera and 72 families were determined.

The vital role of medicinal plants in creating employment is inevitable, and Golestan province is one of the important poles of medicinal plants production in the country due to its climatic diversity, and a large number of populations involved in the medicinal plants businesses. This study was conducted to identify the barriers to the development of distribution businesses of medicinal plants products in Golestan province. A descriptive survey was used for this purpose. The statistical community of the study consisted of 150 business owners in Golestan province, 109 of whom were selected by simple random sampling. Data were collected through a questionnaire, the validity of which was confirmed by a panel of experts. The reliability of the study was assessed through Cronbach’s-Alpha coefficient which was 0.88. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. The results revealed that lack of proper government support for practitioners and activists in the medicinal plants businesses, non-acceptance of medicinal plants by doctors, increased cost of medical plants production, the high price of herbal medicines and consequently low public interest in their consumption and development of new medical treatments with new drugs and neglect of the importance of medicinal plants are the most important inhibitors of medicinal plants businesses. The factor analysis categorized the inhibitory variables of medicinal plants businesses into eight factors including skill and technical, cultural, qualitative and standard, communicational-knowledge, sovereignty and legal, institutional, social, and economic factors. The recommendations of this study included the need for proper government support for practitioners and activists in the medicinal plants businesses, providing the right background for acceptance of medicinal plants by doctors, strengthening and developing the market for medicinal plants and establishing a bridge between the market for the production and sale of medicinal plants

Performing any laboratory study and evaluation on medicinal plants of traditional medicinerelies on documented information of medicinal plants with definite scientific names. Thus,here we address the issue of scientific names to make traditional medicine closer to themodern medicine. To remove any potential ambiguity, we prepared a list of plants that there is a consensus about their scientific name. To this end, first we drew up a list of ancient Iranian and non-Iranian medicinal plants with their scientific names. Then, we added the names of medicinal plants on the market as well as the common Iranian plants. The primary list consisted of the scientific names of 2962 medicinal plants. The names then were critically reviewed and compared with scientific descriptions of reliable textbooks such as "Makhzan al-Adwiya" and "Al-Seidene" by Al-Biruni. After that, we selected the plants with a good agreement between their scientific names on the one hand, and their traditional name and description in ancient books, on the other hand. Consequently, we prepared a list of almost 700 species of medicinal plants (400 traditional medicinal plants) with definitescientific names.

This study aimed to identify economic and educational-extension factors affecting the cultivated area of medicinal plants in Guilan Province using entropy and fuzzy triangular weighting methods in the Delphi technique. The research findings confirmed the substantial role of economic and educational factors in the development of cultivated area of medicinal plants. The results showed that training through field visits, particularly visits to out-of-state, identifying and emphasizing on cultivation of medicinal plants that have medicinal effects are tangible, training through visual, audio, and text media in the cultivation of medicinal plants, providing low-cost credit to cultivate medicinal plants, training through the establishment of a model farm for medicinal plants and attending the multi-day extension - educational classes with an emphasis on the cultivation of these plants, are respectively the most important economic and extension activities affecting the development of cultivated area of medicinal plants.

Even though Kurdistan province in Iran has great potential for the development of the medicinal plant industies, the province does not hold a special position in terms of cultivated area, performance or expansion of this sector. This research was conducted with the aim of identifying the existing capacities and potentials in the field of medicinal plants development in Kurdistan province, as well as determining the challenges and management strategies in this regard by surveying experts and activists. A SWOT analysis was utilized  to identify Kurdistan's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats relating to the development of its medicinal plants industry. The strategic position and action evaluation matrix was used in order to determine the strategy for managing the development of medicinal plants in this province. This study revealed that according to the actors, the most important strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the development of medicinal plant cultivation in the province are: The presence of 144 medicinal plants in the province, The high initial costs and the absence of low interest rate loans with grace periods, The presence of 7500 and 4000 plant species in the Iran and Zagros region, respectively, as well as 2200 medicinal species in the country, the lack of financial support by the government for the development of irrigation modern systems , medicinal plants in Kurdistan. The actors confirmed that the conservative management strategy for medicinal plants development in Kurdistan province. The three following general programs were proposed in accordance with this strategy: 1) Increasing scientific researches, and executive supports for the development of medicinal plants in Kurdistan province, 2) to be increased the area planted with medicinal plants in the province from 2,500 to 25,000 hectares in the Iranian seventh and eighth five-year economic, social, and cultural development plans, and 3) increasing by  focus on medicinal plants by the Agricultural Jihad Organization of Kurdistan province and improving added value of products obtained from these plants.