Plant Science Today

1Community Medicine Department, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran 2Student Research Committee, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran 3Nutritional Health Research Center, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran 4Hepatitis Research Center, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran 5Biotechnology and Medicinal Plants Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran


Introduction
Diarrhoea remains the leading cause of death in children under the age of five (1,2).The main impact of diarrhoeal diseases is observed in developing countries.Each child develops diarrhoea six or seven times on average each year (3).
Diarrhoea-accompanying diseases affect children's health substantially (4).Diarrhoea is one of the ways of the body to kill germs and often lasts from a few days to a week; diarrhoea often involves fever, nausea, vomiting, and dehydration.The causes of diarrhoea are usually viral, bacterial or parasitic infections affecting the digestive tract (5,6).Shortage of water and lack of observing health principles, lack of education and personal hygiene, malnutrition and immune disorder due to HIV are major causes of diarrhoeal disease in developing countries (6).About 1.5 to 5 billion cases of diarrhoea occur annually.The disease is more prevalent in developing countries.In these countries, children get diarrhoea on average 5 times a year (4)(5)(6).
Medicinal herbs are herbs that contain one or more organs containing the active ingredient.Medicinal herbs are used to treat a variety of diseases.They have therapeutic, control and preventive effects.One of the controversial issues regarding medicinal plants is indigenous knowledge.This knowledge is very extensive and includes a variety of aspects, including the ethnobotany of medicinal plants.Ethnobotany refers to the knowledge of human about the botany and ecology of plants.In this ethnobotanical study, the medicinal plants effective on children diarrhoea according to the indigenous knowledge of people in traditional therapists Shahrekord were investigated.

Type of study
This cross-sectional, ethnobotanical study was done by collecting indigenous knowledge of traditional therapists in Shahrekord (Fig. 1) using a questionnaire to identify medicinal plants in the region with anti-diarrhoeal effects in children.This study was carried out from April 2017 to February 2018 by interviewing with and administering a questionnaire to 29 traditional therapists in Shahrekord.

Area of study
Shahrekord is the highest city in Iran.Shahrekord is one of the western cities of Iran and is the capital of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province.Shahrekord has a population of 169199 people.
The language of the people is Persian and Shahrekord has a temperate semi-humid climate with mild summers and very cold winters.The average annual temperature in the Kurdish city is 1.5°C, which is four and a half degrees below the global average.The coldest and warmest months of the month are Shahrekord in January and August respectively.

How to gather traditional information and knowledge
The questionnaires also included demographic information.The interviewers referred to the participants in person and asked them certain questions to elicit their beliefs about herbal medicine.Out of 29 respondents, 8 were female and 21 male.Their education level was from high school diploma to a master degree.The data drawn from the questionnaires were tabulated in the same way.Data were finally analyzed by the Excel software.In this study, the frequency of plant use was calculated by the following formula.

Number of times the plant is used =
Number of people who have mentioned the plant effect X 100 total number of people who filled out questionnaires

Results
The analysis of data drawn from the questionnaires shows that according to the ethnobotanical knowledge in the region under study, 21 1.
The results of data analysis are shown in Table 1 and are illustrated in Fig. 2 and 3. Most plant species reported (n₌5) belong to the Asteraceae family and the aerial part (36%) is the most frequently used plant organ for cases of diarrhoea in Shahrekord (Fig. 2).

Discussion
Most plant-derived drugs have been obtained through the study of traditional therapies and indigenous knowledge of the ancient tribes, and despite the enormous advances in the synthesis of synthetic compounds, some of these compounds are still irreplaceable (19)(20)(21)(22)(23). Ethnobotany deals with the study of the use of plants by the people of a certain tribe or a community and is known as an effective means to draw indigenous knowledge about the uses of plants.Over the past decade, the purposeful study of native pharmacopoeias aimed to produce new drugs has been given priority in the agenda of many national and international organizations.The positive approach of scientists and the increased tendency of governments to collaborate with ethnobotanical projects indicates the growing value of the data obtained from these studies.Medicinal herbs and natural and mineral medicinal compounds are used for therapeutic purposes in digestive diseases and diarrhoea (24)(25)(26).In addition, these medicinal plants used to treat diarrhoea need to be identified correctly, and advanced scanning electron microscopy is recommended (27)(28)(29)(30)(31).The scientific registration and review of the written and non-written knowledge of different ethnicities in Iran regarding traditional medicine will help preserve the valuable treasure of thousands of years of Iranians' medical knowledge and experience and will provide the basis for the discovery of new drugs and the progress of the pharmaceutical industry.
The main treatment for diarrhoea involves the supply of water and electrolytes.Some herbs are water-absorbing and help to treat diarrhoea.Medicinal herbs also help treat infectious diarrhoea because of its antimicrobial properties.Also, some herbs have anti-protozoic and antiviral properties and eliminate parasitic and viral agents in diarrhoea.Others have tannins and pectins that help treat diarrhoea.Others also play an important role in improving diarrhoea by strengthening the immune system and increasing the body's level of natural antibodies.Other mechanisms of medicinal herbs to improve diarrhoea are to reduce bowel movement, which, by reducing bowel movement, increases water absorption in the body than before (32)(33)(34)(35).

Conclusion
Based on the ethno-botanical knowledge in the region can be used as anti-diarrhoea.The anti-diarrhoea effects of some of these plants have already been reported.Regarding the difference in the ethnobotany of medicinal plants between the people of Shahrekord and those of other regions across Iran and different uses of different medicinal plants, as well as the availability of certain medicinal plants in the studied area, our findings on the knowledge of the indigenous people in Shahrekord about the use of medicinal plants may be useful.Therefore, if this therapeutic approach is chosen, the side effects of the

Table 1 .
The scientific name, family, Persian name, used organ(s), and frequency of use of medicinal plants used as antidiarrhoeal agents in Shahrekord