About

Traditional pharmacy can be defined as “the use of natural medicines according to the authoritative manuscripts compiled by great medical scientists of at least past two millennia”. Traditional pharmacy relies on the science of herbal medicine and its application. in health, preventive and curative medicine. Traditional medicine has flourished over the past few decades following the emphasize and recommendations of World Health Organization. Traditional pharmacy is mainly the science of preparing, evaluating and standardization of simple and compound natural/herbal medicines, as well as conducting experiments and clinical research on their efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetics. Herbal medicines have a noticeable share in the pharmaceutical market, and serves to prevent and cure a wide spectrum of diseases such as gastrointestinal, respiratory, CNS, etc. disorders, which is expected to soon have a higher status due to their therapeutic value and effectiveness. Today, with the combination of pharmacognosy, pharmaceutics and traditional pharmacy knowledge, extensive progress has been made in the field of purification and development of herbal medicines. Furthermore, the progress of novel delivery systems such as targeted delivery of herbal nanoparticles is a new field that has an elevated potential for the access of herbal medications and their pure compounds into the competitive and advantageous pharmaceutical market. In addition, traditional medicine has practical recommendations in improving the science of nutrition and life style, which can be very effective in improving the food industry.

   As emphasized by the World Health Organization, the expansion of traditional medicine and its integration into the modern medicine seem to be of great importance. Moreover, growing demand for herbal medicines warrants the introduction of new courses on traditional medicine and pharmacy to undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy programs which is also convenient for conducting drug research and development, in pharmaceutical industry and academia.

The PhD in Traditional Pharmacy is an advanced research degree based on Islamic and Persian Traditional Medicine and Pharmacy which is awarded on the basis of successful completion of related courses as well as a research thesis. The thesis can be an original research on pharmacological aspects of medicinal plants and/or engaging in a scientific editing of a handwritten manuscript on Islamic and Persian Traditional Medicine. Department of Traditional Pharmacy offers courses including medicinal plants botany and pharmacology; History of Persian and Islamic Medicine; Formulation methods of Persian Traditional Pharmacy dosage forms; Methods of using and editing the handwritten Traditional Medicine manuscripts. The research thesis is an original work either on various pharmacological activities of plant extracts or formulations used in Traditional Medicine (in vitro studies or a clinical trial), or formulation of a traditionally used dosage form.