In recent months, as coronavirus has ravaged Iran, more and more people have come to Ahmad Karbalaei’s 200-year-old attari, a shop selling traditional herbal medicine, in search of help.
One of his medicines is named after Imam Kazim, an infallible Imam of Shia Muslims, and is recommended by the clergy. It includes red sugar, mastic and fennel and is mixed with honey before being taken. Another is based on a prescription from Avicenna, a famous Persian physician of the 10th century, and includes sweet violet, horsemint, thyme and maidenhair fern.
“Around 50 people on average come to this shop every day to ask about or buy Imam Kazim drugs. The demand is very high,” said Mr Karbalaei, the owner of the attari. He typically recommends the one based on Avicenna, which he was taught as a treatment for asthma by a 70-year-old patient half a century ago. “Now, I sell it to coronavirus patients.”
The rising demand for traditional medicines has attracted…