Herbal Medicine: Open Access

Abstract

The present study investigated different Traditional Medicines (TM) of Middle East which may have acute toxic effects on human being. The toxic effects may be a consequence of direct effect or contamination by other toxicants that added deliberately or accidentally. We categorized the effect of TM based on the main cause of consumption including pain relief, fertility/abortion, mood enhancing, skin/cosmetic issues, anti- diabetic, anti-neoplastic, gastrointestinal remedies, ophthalmic problems, anti-epileptic, weight loss/gain remedies, epilepsy, psychosomatic problems and depression and other causes, using scientific search engines, PubMed and Google Scholar. The used terms were “traditional medicine”, “Middle East” OR “Iran”, “Toxicity” OR “Poisoning” and report most important recent toxicological events from public health perspective. TM use, which is prevalent in Middle Eastern countries, has several potentially negative effects that include direct toxic effects, heavy metals contamination and negative interactions with other drugs.