Medicinal plants for kidney pain: An ethnobotanical study on Shahrekord city, West of Iran

Kidney problems such as kidney stones, pyelonephritis, nephropathy, diabetes, hypertension and other kidney complications can cause kidney pain. In general, opioid and non-opioid systemic analgesics are used to control pain that have many side effects such as nausea, vomiting, sedation, and respiratory depression. Studies on plants that can be useful in the treatment of kidney diseases such as kidney pain are difficult and little research has been done in this regard. Therefore, in this ethnobotanical study, plant antioxidants and medicinal plants affecting kidney pain were identified. For this purpose, a questionnaire was used to identify and obtain indigenous information and knowledge of traditional therapists in Shahrekord regarding the treatment of kidney pain. This ethnobotanical study was conducted from 21 April, 2016 to 19 February, 2017 in 29 traditional therapists of the region under purpose. Finally, the data drawn from the questionnaires were analyzed using the Excel software. In this study, the frequency of plant use was also calculated. The results of this study showed that 16 species of medicinal plants from 11 plant families in this region are used to cure kidney pain. The most frequently used are for anti-kidney pain was Alhagi maurorum (79%) followed by Tribulus terrestris (70%). Besides, the Asteraceae (5 plant species) was the largest family of medicinal plants with anti-kidney pain effect, and the flower (32%) was the most frequently used plant organ for anti-kidney pain property.