Phytochemistry and Ethnopharmacology of Medicinal Plants Used on Safeen Mountain in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Fuad Othman Abdullah* a , Faiq Hama Saeed Hussain a , Abdullah Shukur Sardar b , Paola Vita-Finzi c,d and Giovanni Vidari c,d a Department of Chemistry, College of Science, University Salahaddin-Erbil, Iraq b Department of Biology, College of Education, Salahaddin-Erbil, Iraq c Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Pavia, Via Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy d CESMEC, Università di Pavia, Via Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy vidari@unipv.it, fuadchem@yahoo.com Received: May 14 th , 2016; Accepted: August 10 th , 2016 In remote villages of Kurdistan-Iraq, such as in those on Safeen Mountain, decoctions, potions, and oils from the local herbal tradition have provided the only medicinal remedies for centuries, up to today. A variety of diseases are treated with different plant preparations, ranging from simple rheumatism to diarrhea, skin diseases, and highly complicated kidney and heart problems. This survey describes, for the first time, the mostly used medicinal plants, resulting from several interviews with local herbal healers. The bioactivity of some isolated compounds is, indeed, strictly related to traditional uses of plants in Safeen Mountain Province. We also report the preliminary results of our ongoing research project on the constituents of the still uninvestigated plant Pterocephalus nestorianus Nab., which is traditionally used against inflammation and oral diseases. Luteolin-7-O-glucoside, 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid and loganic acid were isolated. Keywords: Kurdistan, Safeen Mountain, Medicinal plants, Pterocephalus nestorianus, Chemical constituents. A great variety of plants grow on the mountains of Iraqi-Kurdistan [1], that for the most part provide pasturage for herds of goats and sheep; however, many species are also carefully collected, mostly by women, for their medicinal properties [2]. Indeed, Kurdistan people’s knowledge about medicinal plants is based on hundreds of years of beliefs, observations, and a rich medicinal history [3-4]. In fact, as in other emerging countries, traditional herbal medicine is still in Kurdistan the first choice for primary cures of many diseases, especially by people that cannot buy modern expensive synthetic drugs; moreover, in remote villages, such as in those on Safeen Mountain, decoctions, potions, and oils from the local herbal tradition have provided the only medicinal remedies for centuries, up to today. Therefore, the trivial names of medicinal plants and the beliefs in their beneficial properties are still part of the cultural heritage of any family in Kurdistan, which are orally transmitted through generations. Moreover, most suks or bazars, for example that at Shaqlawa village on Safeen Mountain, contain a section selling medicinal wild plants, while herbalists are consulted by local people as the primary specialists in herbal remedies. The situation is, however, rapidly changing, even in this part of the world. In fact, herbalists suffer the increasing competition from modern pharmacies and new herbal clinics. Thus, they keep adding pre- packed imported herbal products to their inventories, often ignoring uses and properties, to provide easy treatments without the risk of being blamed for misuses. Therefore, as traditional culture is jeopardized by modernization, herbalists gradually lose their prominent position as traditional healers and become businessmen, trading herbal products. Thus, traditional knowledge, not being orally transmitted to new generations, is irreparably lost [5]. It is, therefore, urgent to save the Kurdish cultural heritage, by keeping written memory of traditional medicinal plants and confirming their therapeutical uses by scientific evidence. In addition phytochemical investigation of species potentially containing bioactive principles should be encouraged. This short review wants to contribute to this Figure 1: Map of Safeen Mountain, northeast Erbil, Kurdistan-Iraq. efforts, being, to our knowledge, the first ethnobotanical survey on traditional plants mostly used by people living on Safeen Mountain. The Safeen Mountain range is located about 50 Km northeast of Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan Region (Figure 1), at latitude 36 o 22' 24" and longitude 44 o 18' 25", reaching an altitude of about 1000 m a.s.l., with average temperatures ranging from 0 to 25 o C. The flora of Safeen Mountain reflects the geographical position of the mountains, highland plains, and valleys. Consequently, the biogeography is characterized by a mantle of different types of plants: medium-sized trees, such as Crataegus and Quercus species, a wide variety of woody bushes, shrubs and grass, such as 2016 Vol. 11 No. 12 1923 - 1927 NPC Natural Product Communications