TEHRAN – The second national festival on Iranian traditional medicine will be held on November 10, concurrent with World Science Day for Peace and Development.

The main topics of this festival, like the first edition, include education, research, and treatment, and in this edition, two new topics are added, including the COVID-19 crisis and the field of culture and art, IRNA reported on Wednesday.

In the field of culture and art, the winners will be announced for selected works in applications, short films, posters and infographics, short stories for children, motion graphics and photography, focusing on lifestyle modification.

In Iran, 2,300 species of medicinal plants have been identified. Iranian traditional medicine is one of the most ancient forms of traditional medicine. It is grounded in the concept of four senses of humor: phlegm (Balgham), blood (Dam), yellow bile (Safra'), and black bile (Sauda'). The concept of four senses of humor is based on the teachings of Rhazes and Avicenna into an elaborate medical system.

Globally, this medicine reached its peak in Iran, concurrent with polymaths such as Muhammad ibn Zachariah al-Razi, Ibn Sina, and Esmaeil Jorjani. Ancient Iranian Medicine, the basic knowledge of four senses of humor as a healing system, was developed by Hakim ibn Sina in his medical encyclopedia The Canon of Medicine.

Iranian traditional medicine strongly focuses on prioritizing health maintenance and disease prevention over treatment.

8,000 herbal species grow in Iran

So far, about 30,000 plant species are identified in the world, with Iran's share of about 8,000 species that its plant diversity is more than the whole of Europe.

Currently, about 2,300 species of medicinal plants have been identified in the country; while medicinal plants account for one-third of the medicines used in human societies, the share of world trade in these products is about $124 billion and Iran’s share is $570 million, which is only 0.5 percent of the total.

The per capita consumption of medicinal plants in Iran is about one kilogram of dried plants, in other words, 83,000 tons of medicinal plants worth 1.2 trillion rials (around $29 million at the official rate of 42,000 rials) are consumed in the country, while in Europe this amount is 900 grams and in the United States is 2.5 kilograms.

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