Nephrotonic and Nephroprotective Medicinal Herbs in Traditional Persian Medicine: Review and Assessment of Scientific Evidence

The tendency to use herbal and complementary therapies has been increased dramatically in the last decades. The aim of this study is to review nephrotonic and nephroprotective medicinal herbs in traditional Persian Medicine (TPM) historical books and assess relevant scientific evidence and possible mechanisms of action. In this study, seven major references among pharmaceutical books of PM from the 11th to 19th centuries were selected and were searched with keywords equivalent to “nephroprotection”. To find new studies, the scientific names of medicinal herbs which have been repeated twice or more were searched using databases, including PubMed and Google scholar, with keywords of nephroprotective, renal disorder, renal failure and kidney. Also, probable effective mechanisms were explored with keywords, including oxidative stress, antioxidant, inflammation, anti-inflammatory and angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor. 210 herbal remedies were found with kidney strengthening, nephroprotective, and atrophy prevention effects in reviewed books. The most repeated herbs were 41. Results of scientific evidence showed that the possible functional mechanisms of these plants include anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, blood pressure/glucose-lowering effect as well as improvement of glomerular filtration, prevention of tissue damage, and enhancing reconstructive power of cells. The list of medicinal herbs in this study can be used as a basis of future studies on the production of new medicines for the prevention or treatment of renal failure and for the enhancement of renalfunction.