TEHRAN – The 23rd national congress on medicinal plants will be held on August 27-30 in Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (GAU), northern Iran, ISNA reported on Tuesday.

The congress has been held every two years in the country since (13)40s [falling on 1960s], Kamran Rahnama the secretary of the congress said.

The main focuses of the congress are medicinal plants, crops and orchards, medicinal plants of forest trees, diseases of oil seeds, he said, adding that, plant, community and environment health, environmental diversity, biosystematics and biodiversity in medicinal plants, and pesticide management in agricultural ecosystem are among the major issues to be presented at the event.

One of the issues happened earlier in May was toxic mushrooms which have took the lives of many people in the country, he regretted, adding that so, on the sidelines of the event, a workshop will be held in this regard on August 28.

In May, toxic mushrooms killed 18 and poisoned 1,151 people in western and Sothern parts of the country in provinces of Lorestan, Kordestan, West Azarbaijan, Zanjan, Ilam, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, Qazvin, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Fars, Markazi and Hamedan, Khabaronline reported.

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