en انگل شناسی Parasitology مروري Review Article <div><strong>Background and objectives:</strong> Intestinal parasitic infections are a major public health problem worldwide, especially in developing countries. It is estimated that around 3.5 billion people are infected with intestinal parasites. Human intestinal parasites (HIP) are clinically important due to broad epidemiological distribution, reinfection and drug resistance. In the last decades, bioactive compounds from herbs were used against a wide variety of microorganisms including parasites. We aimed to perform a systematic review on studies on the effects of medicinal herbs on HIPs in Iran.<br> &nbsp;<br> <strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Methods:</strong> Relevant scientific publications until April, 2015 were extracted from five English databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, Ebsco, Science Direct and Scopus) and four Persian databases (Magiran, Irandoc, IranMedex and the Scientific Information Database).<br> &nbsp;<br> <strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Results: </strong>A total of 18 papers and two <a name="OLE_LINK2"></a><a name="OLE_LINK1">dissertations</a> met the inclusion criteria. Overall, 22 different plant extracts were used against <em>Giardia lamblia</em>, <em>Entamoeba histolytica</em>, <em>Cryptosporidium</em> and <em>Hymenolepis nana</em>. Based on the results, the extracts could exert time- and dose-dependent inhibitory effects against the tested HIPs. Five plants types including <em>Allium</em>, <em>Chenopodium botrys, Carum copticum, F. asafoetida</em> and<em> Artemisia annua </em>were able to completely inhibit the tested parasites, while <em>Thymus vulgaris</em> and <em>A. paradoxum</em> showed the lowest inhibitory effect (7%).<br> &nbsp;<br> <strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Conclusions:</strong> Given the findings, it is recommended to conduct in vivo studies on medicinal herbs with favorable in vitro effects against HIPs.</div> Intestinal Parasites, Herbal Medicines, Plant Extracts, In vitro, In vivo 1 12 http://mlj.goums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-186-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Masoud Soosaraei masoudsoosaraie@gmail.com 100319475328460017973 100319475328460017973 No Toxoplasmosis Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari,Iran Ahmad Daryani daryaanii1@yahoo.com 100319475328460017974 100319475328460017974 No Toxoplasmosis Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari,Iran Shahabeddin Sarvi shahabe.saarvii@yahoo.com 100319475328460017975 100319475328460017975 No Toxoplasmosis Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari,Iran Mohamad Taghi Rahimi rahimimt@gmail.com 100319475328460017976 100319475328460017976 No School of Medical Science, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran Mahdi Fakhar mahdif53@yahoo.com 100319475328460017977 100319475328460017977 No Toxoplasmosis Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari,Iran Hajar Ziaei Hezarjaribi ziaei2000@yahoo.com 100319475328460017978 100319475328460017978 No Toxoplasmosis Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari,Iran Mehdi Sharif msharifmathdsi@yahoo.com 100319475328460017979 100319475328460017979 Yes Toxoplasmosis Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari,Iran