Official: Iran Ranks 4th Worldwide in Traditional Medicine Citation
“Scientifically and practically, we have achieved a good position and an acceptable international ranking in the field of medicinal plants,” said Mohammad Reza Shams Ardakani, the secretary of the Science and Technology Development of Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine Headquarters of the Iranian Vice-Presidency for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy.
“Since two years ago (2022), we have been able to rank fourth in the world, which is a very special success,” he added.
“We also have good knowledge-based companies that operate in the field of production, processing and extraction (of medicinal plants), and the Headquarters will also support them,” Shams Ardakani underlined.
In July 2019, Javad Mirarab an official with the Ministry of Agriculture said that medicinal plants are cultivated on some 188,000 hectares of lands in Iran.
He also said that exports of the aforesaid medicinal plants brought $450 million for Iran last year, and saffron with a value of $325 million constituted the largest share of exports.
Meanwhile, head of the natural products department at Food and Drug Administration Mahnaz Khanavi said that natural and herbal medicines constitute 4 percent of the total amount of medicines used in the country.
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