A review of the most important medicinal plants effective on cough in children and adults

Abstract

Cough is referred to the strong explosive exhalation which causes removal of secretions and foreign bodies from tracheobronchial tract. Given the prevalence of children's and adults' involvement with and acquisition of cough, this review article was aimed to report the plants used to treat and relieve cough in traditional culture and ethnobotany of Iran's different regions. To select the articles, the key words such as ethnobotany, ethnopharmacoligy, ethnomedicine, phytopharmacology, phytomedicine, traditional medicine, and Iran in combination with the words cough, upper respiratory tract, and children were used to search in Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, International Science Citation Center, and Magiran.The findings indicated that 51 medicinal plants are used in Iran traditional medicine to specifically treat cough. Most of the plants identified in this study were antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory, which can affect the upper respiratory tract because of containing antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory compounds, and relieve and treat cough. The anti-cough property of some of these plants has been studied in clinical trials but not confirmed, which could be a basis for clinical trials in future.