12/3/1433

A scientific study conducted by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) revealed the existence of 319 species of herbal plants used for folk medicine or what is currently known as alternative medicine or traditional medicine throughout the Kingdom. The study is considered one of the fruits of the National Project for Traditional Medicine that is financially supported by KACST to help specialists and stakeholders know plants utilized in medical treatments of diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) approved these plant species and embodied them within its medical programs.
KACST shouldered the responsibility of this national project particularly after most world counties and on particular the advanced ones adopted herbal and natural plants treatment despite the giant advances of modern medicine; not to mention, WHO call to enlist herbal treatment among primary health care programs for each country. Through its research plans in this field, KACST supported various scientific projects of medical plants, their positives and negatives and published findings of these projects in scientific books for members of the society to benefit from.
The Folk Medicine National Program, carried out by a number of professors of the Faculty of Pharmacy at King Saud University (KSU) came out with various positive results of herbal treatment; among which is the scientific study published
in a book entitled (Plants Used in Saudi Folk Medicine). The book  comprehended detailed explanations of 319 species of plants traded in the traditional medicine that grow in different areas around the kingdom, treating effects and medical usages for each species by itself  in addition to elaborating on its objective qualities, areas of cultivation, and warnings of dangers of plants known by their  toxic and harmful effects.
The book listed common and slang names of herbs and plants used in folk medicine, arranged them alphabetically according to their most commonly used Arabic names, while Latin names were used for species that have no equivalent Arabic names to make the book a credible global scientific resource and reference that contributes to identifying with botany science and arbitrated resource in fields of related scientific researches and studies.
As a result of stakeholders’ high and increased demand on the book from within and outside the Kingdom, KASCT updated and reprinted it that made the book one of the most important Arabic scientific references in this specialty.
Meanwhile, KACST warned from the using any herbs or natural plant for medical treatment without by the specialist physician in the field of alternative medicine, noting that though many plants and herbs have therapeutic benefits, there are some others which resemble them in appearance but have damaging effects on human health and life and the confusion between the two types leads to serious risks to humans.