Assessment of use traditional and native medicinal plants in the North of Iran (case study: series 81 and 83 forestry project of natural resources department of Mazandaran-Sari)

Background & Aim: In recent years, Iran and other countries pay special attention to side effects of chemical plants. This interest in plants and their derivatives leads to business of medicinal plants. In Caspian region, in forestry projects there are many plant species with medicinal uses from which the locale indigenous used due to traditional experience without any especial processing in past centuries. In this regard, the forestry projects of the 83th area (series one, two and three) including ​​25429 hectares located at 80 km from south part of Behshahr and the 81th area including 14528 hectares located at 70 km from south part of Neka were selected to be studied.  Experimental: In order to introduce the species of medicinal and aromatic plants, the collected ones from the region have been identified after transferring to herbarium by using various floras. Then, using the local data obtained from direct interviews and questionnaires and related books, their pharmacological profile were recorded and, the processing and analysis were performed on raw data. Results & Discussion: The results of this study showed that there are 210 species which belong to 47 families in the studied area, among which 30 families have 76 species from which 24 species of rangeland plant and 6 species of tree and shrub are used by local people. This study showed that local people used these plants after converting some useable parts of them into nectars, jams, pickles sauce, or boiled plants. Also, using the green parts of plants as edible vegetables and food flavoring is of great importance. Industrial and practical recommendations: Research on understanding and how to use rangeland medicinal plants can be helpful so to pharmaceutical industry. So the supportive actions to identify preserve and increase the valuable species of medicinal plants in this region are recommended.