Mehr News Agency

Fariborz Gheybi, project commissioner for developing medicinal herbs department of the Organization described cultivating and harvesting medicinal herbs as one of the hidden potentials in natural resources of the country and said, “Iran's natural resources enjoy high potential to generate revenue in such a way that it can be substituted with oil resources.”

He pointed to the identification of 2,300 herbal species with pharmaceutical property in the country and said, “given the diversity in climatic conditions in Iran, it can be said that many plants in the world can be cultivated in Iran due to its fertile soil.”

He further noted that most medicinal plants grown in Iran can be used in pharmaceutical, industrial, cosmetics and sanitary industries.

The history of properties of medicinal herbs dates back to many years ago, he said, adding, “luminaries and distinguished personalities including Avicenna and Razi used medicinal herbs as a healing source for the treatment of diseases.”

He put the current annual production volume of medicinal herbs in the country at over 200,000 tons, on a land area as large as 183,000 ha, expandable to 500,000 tons.

He further noted the export of medicinal herbs in bulk and raw forms as a major problem in this sector and added, “establishing factories for processing medicinal herbs should be taken into consideration in order to compete with the similar foreign products at the international level.”