An Overview of the Therapeutic Potential of Iris persica

The family Iridaceae contains 92 genera and more than 1800 species, mostly perennial herbs with underground storage organs called rhizomes (bulbs). Some genera are important in traditional medicines, especially Iris and Gladiolus. The genus Iris belongs to this family and comprises about hundreds of species among them, 12 species are found in Iraq. It has been widely used in various medicines worldwide especially Iris persica is used in folk medicine in the Kurdistan region of Iraq as an effective treatment of tumours, inflammation, and as antibacterial and antifungal agent. Earlier findings confirmed that Iris persica and its constituents play a role in the scavenging of free radical generation and prevention of disease pathogenesis. Each part of the Iris persica herb has some medicinal property. This review focuses mainly on the biological activities of the Iris persica and some of their compounds isolated, pharmacological actions of the Iris persica extracts and products, and plausible medicinal and therapeutically applications.