Role of Herbal Medicine in Oral and Dental Health; Ethnopharmacological Study of Medicinal Plants in Iraq/Baghdad

Abstract

Dental/Oral diseases are one of the major public health problems globally. The application of Herbal medicines for the manager of oral diseases are considered as an effective alternative to synthetic compound due to their lower side effect. The object of This study is a study of the traditional medicine role in dental health, based on active constituents in herbal medicines, which have been practiced by people. In this study, we sought to gather information from Bedouins in Baghdad region of Iraq about used herbs medicine in dental health. Depth interviews (unstructured interviews) are used to collect the data by asking face-to-face to the respondent. The research has been done in two stages, first one directed to traditional healers, folk practitioners, to know the most common used Herbal in dental health, and the second stage was directed to people. Our results shown that Syzygium aromaticum, Camellia sinensis, and Mentha shown the highest used value (UV) up to 0.90, and mostly used for treatment of Toothache, Canker sore and Oral ulcer, also they used them as a homemade mouth wash. Our studies also shown an increasing in demand of herbal medicine in Iraq day by day as an alternative method of oral/ dental diseases treatment due to economic reasons and its lower side effects in comparison with a synthetic compound.