Botanical drugs and preparations in the traditional medicine of West Azerbaijan (Iran)

We present the results of an investigation of the traditional ethnobotany a nd ethnomedicine of West Azerbaijan (Iran). Tn this region medicinal plants are often the only easily accessible health care alternative for most of t he population in rural areas and in fact folk herbal medicine is the most u sed remedy to cure common diseases. In this paper we present the most frequ ently used native species and the most common preparations made from them, in order to preserve the plant popular knowledge, which has traditionally b een only an oral one. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights res erved.