Natural Products, Medicinal Plants & Marine Drugs

Today renewable natural resources play an important role in different aspects of life. Iran is a vast country and has different types of climate: mild and quite wet on the coast of the Caspian Sea, continental and arid in the plateau, cold in high mountains, desert and hot in the southern coast and in the southeast. Much of Iran is covered by high plateaus and mountain ranges. Iranian botanical scientists have identified nearly 10,000 plants species by now, approximately 1000 of which are medicinal and aromatic plants. In this presentation, we will introduce some of the Iranian herbs, e.g. Anethum graveolens, Mentha piperita, and Carum carvi. The plant samples were collected from different ecological zoons, identified and investigated for their ethno-pharmaceutical uses. These plants contain phenolic and antioxidant compounds, specially used to treat gastrointestinal disorders. The majority of medicinal or aquatic plants including algae, floating, submerged, marginal and emerged plants adapt themselves to live in shallow coastal zones, wetlands, land ponds, lakes and oceans. The term algae includes over 3,50,000 species. Seaweed is green, red and brown algae. Extraction and phytochemistry studying of red algae and medicinal plants could provide healthy nutrition to the society. We cultivated red algae in Persian Gulf in large scale as human and animal food. Extraction and investigated amount of agar-agar, vitamin and minerals in red algae down. On the other hand, they can be used in aquaculture and biological treatment. Pharmacological studies on the therapeutic effects of the indigenous plants mentioned in this study are necessary.