[Review of antidiabetic plants in Iranian traditional medicine and their efficacy]

High prevalence of diabetes mellitus and its complications and increasing use of complementary therapies, especially herbal therapies, and the need of developing countries to use their indigenous medical methods, motivated us to introduce some plants used in Iranian traditional medicine for the treatment of this disease. The topic of "ziabetes" [the synonym of diabetes] in some of Iranian traditional medical texts were studied and herbal therapies of this disease were collected. Some edible plant compounds introduced and scientific names of plants in these compounds were identified. Pubmed and Scopus databases were searched for studies regarding hypoglycemic effects of these medicinal herbs on animal or human subjects. Many medicinal herbs and; minerals in single or compound form have been used in Iranian traditional medicine. Plants such as Punica granatum, Rosa damascene, Plantago psyllium, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Coriandrum sativum, Portulaca oleracea and Rumex patientia are the most popular ones. Recent studies on animal or human subjects have shown the hypoglycemic effects of some of these plants. Reassessment of the effects of some antidiabetic plants used in Iranian traditional medicine, proved their efficacy mainly in animals. However, we need more clinical trials to prove safety and; efficacy of these herbs and compounds

Use and attitude on herbal medicine in a group of pregnant women in Tehran

While the use of herbal medicines is common in Tehran, there is scant data regarding various aspects of the use of such medicines during pregnancy. The frequency of the use of herbal medicines in a group of pregnant women in Tehran and their attitude to the use of such medicines were evaluated. In this cross-sectional study, 600 pregnant women were studied. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to explore the demographic and pregnancy related data, the extent of use of the herbal medicines, the subjects' sources of information and their attitude regarding such medicines. The data were analyzed using student t- and chi-square tests. Logistic regression was used to determine the predicting factors. 402 [67%] participants had used at least one type of herbal medicine during their current or previous pregnancies, with a mean of 2.71 +/- 1.94 herbs per individual. Two commonly used herbs were peppermint [32.8%] and olibanum [26.3%]. Maternal and Gestational age, family size, children number, frequency of having medical insurance and positive attitude in users were significantly higher than non-users [P values were 0.02, 0.02, 0.001, <0.001, 0.04 and <0.001 respectively]. The score of attitude was the only predictor for taking herbal medicine with the odds ratio 0.89 [95% confidence interval: 0.86-0.92] of logistic regression model for negative attitude. Considering the high frequency of herbal medicine use during pregnancy, pregnant women need appropriate sources of information about these medicines. Further, health care providers should ask pregnant women about taking herbal medicines