Improving health benefits with considering traditional and modern health benefits of Peganum harmala

Abstract

Abstract Background Medicinal plants are potential source of natural products that play an important role in preventing different human diseases. P. harmala is used traditionally as emmenagogue and an abortifacient agent in the Middle East, North of Africa and West of China. It belongs to the family of Zygophyllaceae and it is a wild growing flowering plant. Its seeds are main medicinal part of the plant. Methods The current searching was done by the keywords in main indexing systems including PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Institute for Scientific Information Web of Science as well as the search engine of Google Scholar. The keywords were wild rue, traditional medicine, Harman, health benefits, and pharmaceutical science. Results The most important uses of P. harmala in traditional pharmaceutical sciences are in cardiovascular, gasterointestinal, nervous, endocrine, neoplasm and tumors, pain relieving, organisms, diabetes, respiratory, disinfectant, anti-pyretic, skin and hair, rheumatism, arthritis and inflammation, and ulcers. Pharmacological effects of P. harmala are in cardiovascular system, nervous system, antimicrobial effects, antineoplasm, nervous system, endocrine, gastrointestinal effects, osteocytes, endocrine and respiratory system. Phenolic compounds are the main reason of antioxidant capacity. Conclusions Due to its pharmacological activities, P. harmala is a high potential medicinal herb and the suggestion is to increases by doing research in efficacy and safety.