TEHRAN – The Ministry of Health’s department of Iranian traditional medicine has signed a memorandum of understanding with five executive bodies for the development of a cult

The memorandum was signed between the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Interior, Iran University of Medical Sciences, the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

Mohammad Reza Shams-Ardakani, director of the department of Iranian traditional medicine at Ministry of Health, said that the establishment of traditional health centers, enhanced cooperation to promote a healthy lifestyle based on the traditional medicine, and flourishing of health tourism for Persian traditional medicine are among the important goals of the MOU.

There are 56 health centers and clinics offering Iranian traditional medicine services in the country.

In July 2019, Javad Mirarab an official with the Ministry of Agriculture said that medicinal plants are cultivated on some 188,000 hectares of lands in Iran.

He also said that exports of the aforesaid medicinal plants brought $450 million for Iran last year, and saffron with a value of $325 million constituted the largest share of exports.

Meanwhile, head of the natural products department at Food and Drug Administration Mahnaz Khanavi said that natural and herbal medicines constitute 4 percent of the total amount of medicines used in the country.

According to the World Health Organization, Traditional (WHO) herbal medicines are naturally occurring, plant-derived substances with minimal or no industrial processing that have been used to treat illness within local or regional healing practices. Traditional herbal medicines are getting significant attention in global health debates.

Global herbal market size is estimated at approximately $72 billion which is predicted to reach $7 trillion by 2050. Medicinal plants are used in various industries which are worth around $80 billion.

Europe is the largest herbal product market valued at $7.5 billion and has a 40% market share. China has the highest number of medicinal plants and also is the leading country in export of medicinal plants globally having 15% sharing global export under this category.

FB/MG