www.scholarsresearchlibrary.com t Available online a Scholars Research Library Der Pharmacia Lettre, 2016, 8 (1):90-96 (http://scholarsresearchlibrary.com/archive.html) ISSN 0975-5071 USA CODEN: DPLEB4 90 Scholar Research Library A review of the most important medicinal plants effective on cough in children and adults Azam Mohsenzadeh 1 , Shokoufeh Ahmadipour 1 , Saeedeh Ahmadipour 2 and Majid Asadi-Samani 3* 1 Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran 2 Department of Pharmaceutical, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran 3 Student Research Committee, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran; _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 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. Key words: Cough, Medicinal plants, Ethnobotany, Iran. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Cough is the strong explosive exhalation, which exits the secretions and foreign bodies from tracheobronchial tract. If coughing becomes intense and persistent, it causes discomfort and increases the likelihood of cancer incidence [1,2]. Cough could be intentional or reflexive, and afferent and efferent are involved in its development. Efferent is a recurrent, laryngeal and spinal nerve and afferent is a sensory trigeminal, glossopharyngeal, superior laryngeal and vagus nerve [3].Cough is a common reason for children's referring physicians, and description of previous coughing, the time of exacerbation, and its quality help greatly to diagnosis. Any children on acquire respiratory infection on average 5-8 times a year, each lasting for 6-9 days. Therefore, a healthy child experiences coughing at a variety of intensities on average for 50 days a year [4-6]. Cough is a very important defensive mechanism of upper tract [7-9]. In fact, cough is a very common symptom of pulmonary diseases and the most common symptom which physicians deal with and patients request for healthcare and medical practices for, particularly if cough is chronic (lasts for more than eight weeks) [10-14].Based on the affected location of nervous system, anti-cough drugs are generally divided into two classes, peripheral and central [15]. Peripheral anti cough drugs cause suppression of responding in one or more sensory receptors of vagus nerve that produce cough [16,17]. Central anti cough drugs act in central nervous system at brainstem surface where basal neural circuits responsible for creating cough reflex are located