medicina Review Iranian Medicinal Plants: From Ethnomedicine to Actual Studies Piergiacomo Buso 1, Stefano Manfredini 1 , Hamid Reza Ahmadi-Ashtiani 2,3, Sabrina Sciabica 1, Raissa Buzzi 1,4, Silvia Vertuani 1,* and Anna Baldisserotto 1 1 Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Master Course in Cosmetic Sciences, University of Ferrara, Via Luigi Borsari 43, 44121 Ferrara, Italy;
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[email protected] 3 Cosmetic, Hygienic and Detergent Sciences and Technology Research Center, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran 194193311, Iran 4 Ambrosialab S.r.l. University of Ferrara Spinof Company, Via Mortara 171, 44121 Ferrara, Italy * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 9 January 2020; Accepted: 21 February 2020; Published: 26 February 2020 Abstract: Iran has a rich and diverse cultural heritage, consisting of a complex traditional medicine deeply rooted in the history of the territory that goes back to the Assyrian and Babylonian civilizations. The ethnomedical practices that can be identifiable nowadays derive from the experience of local people who have developed remedies against a wide range of diseases handing down the knowledge from generation to generation over the millennia. Traditional medicine practices represent an important source of inspiration in the process of the development of new drugs and therapeutic strategies. In this context, it is useful to determine the state of the art of ethnomedical studies, concerning the Iranian territory, and of scientific studies on plants used in traditional Iranian medicine.