TEHRAN, Iran — The world has seen great advances in medicine in recent centuries, leading to the discovery and manufacture of numerous types of drugs to cure diseases. Yet many around the world still prefer to use plants and natural products to improve their health, mainly to avoid side effects caused by chemical drugs. As a result, the production of medicinal plants has emerged as a new industry, with their exports rising over the past several decades. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), global sales of such herbal medicine products were estimated at $60 billion in 2002. The figure jumped to $150 billion in 2013 and this trajectory is set to continue in coming decades.
In Iran, however, things are different. Exports of medicinal plants have declined in the past two decades, even though the country is home to 8,000 plant species, of which more than 2,300 have medicinal properties. A whopping 1,728 of them are endemic to Iran.
