Labiatae Family in folk Medicine in Iran: from Ethnobotany to Pharmacology

Labiatae family is well represented in iran by 46 genera and 410 spec ies and subspecies.many members of this family are used in tradit ional and folk medicine . also they are usedas culinary and ornamenta l plants . there are no distinct referenc es on the ethnobotany andethnopharmacology of the family in iran and most of the publication s and documents relatedto the uses of these species are both in persian and not comprehensive. in this article wereviewed all the available publication on this family. also documentation from unpublishedresources and ethnobotanical surveys has been included. based on our literature search, outof the total number of the labiatae family in iran, 18% of the species are used for medicinalpurposes. leaves are the most used plant parts. medicinal applications are class ified into 13main categories. a number of pharmacolo gical and experimental studies have been reviewed ,which confirm some of the traditional applications and also show the headline for future workson this family.