TEHRAN – The 4th Persian Medicine Festival is scheduled to be held in the 11th Iranian calendar month (January 20-February 18, 2025).

The festival plays a key role in promoting and developing Persian medicine, the health ministry website quoted Nafiseh Hosseini-Yekta, the director of the health ministry’s Persian medicine office, as saying.

This festival serves as a platform for researchers to showcase their latest findings and achievements; share their expertise; and benefit from each other’s experiences.

It also provides a valuable opportunity for specialists, students, and all those interested in Persian medicine to become more familiar with the capabilities of Persian medicine, she noted.

Persian medicine primarily focuses on preventing diseases and maintaining health. Along with modern medicine, it plays a critical role in promoting the health of society, the official highlighted.

The 3rd Persian Medicine Festival was held in Tehran in January 2023 with the main goal of identifying and supporting top scientists and innovators in the health sector. 

The event aimed to create a platform for greater productivity from the research achievements, expansion of knowledge-based markets, and multilateral interaction between educational, research, and therapeutic centers.

“Persian medicine; the path of progress and scientific innovation” was the motto of the festival, in line with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei's designation of the Iranian year 1401 (March 2022-March 2023) as “The Year of Production: Knowledge-Based and Job-Creating”.

Persian medicine experts

Around 500 Persian medicine experts are providing health and medical treatment services across the country.

More than 1,000 general practitioners who have passed the Persian medicine courses approved by the health ministry are also offering services, Mehr news agency quoted  Hosseini-Yekta as saying.

Currently, nine faculties of Persian medicine enroll students in the country’s universities, she added.

Training Persian medicine experts has always been at the top of the Persian medicine office’s agenda. Therefore, different skill courses have been developed and held under the supervision of the health ministry.

People highly welcome traditional medicine

On January 7, Hosseini-Yekta said surveys show that more than 80 percent of people in the country intend to benefit from Iranian traditional medicine, ILNA reported.

Their interest in traditional medicine has never faded, she said, adding that traditional medicine is being taught in universities.

Traditional medicine has its roots in the culture, customs, and traditions of Iranians and has always been of interest to them, the official highlighted.

With over five hundred graduates in the field and numerous research articles that have been published, the country has been able to improve its position by being ranked fourth in the production of science in the field of traditional medicine in the world, following China, India, and the United States.

She went on to say that traditional medicine and conventional medicine are complementary. Each of these medicines has unique capabilities that can be used together.

But it can only be prescribed by someone who has fully mastered both fields.

Unfortunately, extremists threaten people's health by either misusing their interest in traditional medicine or depriving them of the right to use the indigenous medicine of the country along with conventional medicine.

Over 300 drugs made from medicinal plants

More than 300 medicines are made out of 1,200 medicinal plants in the country.

The production of medicines from plants in the country dates back to 1980.

About 4,400 natural products and over 2,000 traditional products are being supplied by domestic companies to the market.

So far, about 30,000 plant species have been identified in the world, with Iran's share of about 8,000 species which is more than the whole of species found in Europe.

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 $4 million) are consumed in the country, while in Europe this amount is 900 grams and in the United States is 2.5 kilogram.

In October 2023, an official with the Ministry of Health said that Iran holds some 40 percent share of the market for medicinal plants in the neighboring countries.

“A large volume of pharmaceuticals, supplements, food products, and beverages are exported to Iraq, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, and Afghanistan,” IRNA quoted Hamidreza Banafsheh as saying.

Iran is among the leading countries in the field of medicine and health technology, supplying 98 percent of pharmaceutical items to the domestic market, the official noted.

MT/MG