Plants used in Iraqi traditional medicine in Erbil - Kurdistan region

* Department of pharmaceutcal, College of Pharmacy, Hawler Medical University, Erbil, Iraq. Introduction Herbal medicine is a traditional or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants’ seeds, berries, roots, leaves, bark, flowers and plant extracts for medicinal purposes. Plants are important sources of medicine for thousands of years and are the most important source of life saving drugs for majority of the worlds’ population. Herbal remedies are widely used for the treatment and prevention of various diseases that contain highly active pharmacological compounds. The knowledge about medicinal plant among the people of Iraq is based on hundreds of years of belief, observations, and a rich medicinal history. This survey highlights the phytotherapy practices by traditional medicine in the treatment of various disorders in Erbil-Kurdistan region. from June 1, 2011 to June 1, 2012. The Survey included 10 traditional healers in Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq. The formulary of the survey included two lists of questionnaires. The first one included information about the traditional healers including the address, age, sex, duration of practicing herbal medicine and educational level. The second questionnaire included information about using medicinal plants by traditional healers including plant botanical and vernacular name, part used, form of use and therapeutical use. Anonymity of the participants was ensured. After compilation of all the data, plant materials were collected. Determination of the botanical names of the plants was done in collaboration with Biology Department, College of Education, Salahaddin University. A voucher specimen of each plant has been deposited at the Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, Hawler Medical University. Background and objective: Herbal medicine is a traditional or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants’ seeds, berries, roots, leaves, barks, flowers and plant extracts for medicinal purposes. This survey highlights the traditional phytotherapy practices by traditional healers of Erbil-Kurdistan region in the treatment of various disorders. Methods: An ethnobotanical survey was undertaken to collect information from traditional healers on the use of medicinal plants in Erbil-Kurdistan region. The indigenous knowledge of local traditional healers and the native plants used for medicinal purposes were collected through questionnaire and personal interviews. Results: The investigation revealed that the traditional healers were not professionally authorized and 32 plants belonging to 23 families were used to treat various diseases in traditional medicine. The plants reported have been identified and presented in a table with the vernacular names, useful parts, dosage preparations and medicinal uses. Conclusion: Many recorded species of plants are used in ErbilKurdistan region in traditional medicine but lack phyto-therapeutic evidence. Most indigenous plants remain to be studied which may yield many exciting data for further investigation.