Abstract

URINARY tract stones are the third leading urinary tract disease. People with kidney stones suffer from severe colic pain, which is not often completely relieved with common analgesic medications and opioid drugs are used to relieve pain. The aim of this ethnobotanical study was to identify medicinal plants used by indigenous people of Shahrekord for kidney stones. The present study was carried out in Shahrekord from 21 April 2017 to 19 February 2018 via face-to-face interview with and the questionnaire including demographic information administered to 29 local traditional therapists for collecting indigenous knowledge of local people about the anti-kidney stone effects of medicinal plants in the region under purpose. The data drawn from the questionnaires were meticulously and appropriately tabulated. Data were finally analyzed by the Excel software. In this study, the frequency use of plants was calculated by the following formula. The results showed that 17 medicinal plants from 11 families are used by the people of Shahrekord to treat kidney stones. The Apiaceae and Asteraceae families were dominant. Most used organs were aerial parts (29). Alhagi maurorum. Tribulus terrestris, Brassica rapa subsp. rapa had the highest frequency of citation (FC) (79, 70 and 41, respectively). The findings suggest that humans traditionally use medicinal plants to prevent or treat kidney stones. Besides, although there is no definite evidence on the effects of some plants on kidney stones, their effects on the kidney stones may be due to their active ingredients.