[ comparative study on uterus and kidney inflammation and their treatments described in the book [Hidayat al-Muta'allimin fit-Tib] with modern medicine]

[Hidayat al-Muta'allimin fit-Tib] [A Guide to Students of Medicine] is one of the oldest Persian medical books written in Persian by Akhawayni around llth century in Bukhara. In this book, each disease is described as a separate monograph including signs and symptoms as well as treatment orders. Two of the well explained monographs are concerned to inflammation of uterus and kidney. The purpose of this study was to compare the signs, symptoms, and treatment procedures written in the above mentioned book with what written in modern medical texts for Pelvic Inflammatory Disease [PID] and kidney abscess. For this purpose, a comparative study on signs, symptoms, and treatment procedures of these diseases with modern medicine was done. According to this study, the inflammation of uterus in primary stage showed some similarities with PID and in final stage with tubo- ovarian abscess. The inflammation of kidney at its first stage had a lot of resemblance with pyelonephritis, in advanced stage with interarenal or perinephric abscess, and in final stage with renal failure. The treatment procedures in the old traditional medicine were originally based on herbal treatments that are completely different with modern antibiotic therapy. However, the anti-inflammatory and anti-infective herbal drugs used in this book are in support of the antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory data reported for the most of these herbs in scientific literatures. The results point out that the ancient Iranian physicians had a reasonable concept of the infective diseases. The herbs used by traditional physicians have ethnopharmacological potential for further research to develop new antibacterial and anti-inflammatory agents from these plants

ethnopharmacological study on antibacterial activity of some selected plants used in Iranian traditional medicine

Iran is a land of great heritage of ancient medical scholars. Herbal medicines, as a basement of treatment of diseases have been clearly described in the medical texts of these scholars including Rhazes, Avicenna, and others. Numerous plants are introduced in these texts to treat those diseases likely to be infective ones. Few attempts have been made to evaluate ethnopharmacological aspects of these plants. In the present study selected specimens of plants described in ancient Iranian medical texts to treat infective conditions were evaluated for antibacterial activity. The hypothesis of this study was that the plants described in the ancient medical texts possess antibacterial properties. In this study, ten specimens of these plants were selected from various texts. Their scientific terminologies were prepared based on various respected sources. The antibacterial activity of hydroalcoholic extracts of these herbs, as well as their MICs and MBCs were evaluated according to standard techniques. Results of this study showed that almost all of 10 specimens showed considerable antibacterial activity. The MIC and MBC of some herbs showed strong activity against gram positive and gram negative microorganisms. MICs and MBCs of Heracleum persicum and antibacterial activity of Zea mays are reported for the first time in this study. The antibacterial activity of the selected plants supports their old uses as anti-infective agents. The results of this survey also showed antibacterial activity of Arnebia euchroma [Royle] Johst. and Teucrium polium L. traditionally used as poultice for infective wounds. H. persicumi traditionally used in Iran as spice can play a valuable role in preventing food poisoning. The data of this study supported the importance of ethnopharmacological approach and opened also the new doors to future researches in this field