This article preserves a report published on 8 August 2015 about Iran’s ambitions for medicinal plants exports, with saffron presented as the leading product. The headline’s $450 million figure belongs to that period and should not be read as a current trade statistic.

Saffron and dried medicinal plants displayed with export packaging

What was reported in 2015?

According to the original summary, Sorena Sattari, then Iran’s Vice-President for Science and Technology, spoke at the opening of the second National Festival and Exhibition of Medicinal Plants, Natural Products and Traditional Medicine. He argued that export development should be a priority for the sector and that medicinal plants could contribute more to the national economy.

The report attributed two headline figures to the speech: a global medicinal-plants trade said to exceed $100 billion and an Iranian export figure of about $450 million, in which saffron held a major share. The surviving English translation does not define the year, product coverage or valuation method behind those numbers. They are retained here as claims made in the 2015 report, not independently verified contemporary totals.

Why saffron mattered to the medicinal plants discussion

Saffron sits at the meeting point of agriculture, food, traditional use and scientific research. It is also compact and valuable enough for international trade, so its performance can have an outsized influence on discussions about Iran’s wider medicinal and aromatic plant sector.

That does not mean every saffron shipment is a medicinal product. Much of the spice is sold for culinary use. The 2015 event used a broad sector definition that brought saffron, natural products and traditional-medicine initiatives into the same exhibition. Readers researching the commercial side can also see our overview of Iran’s role in saffron exports.

The export gap highlighted at the exhibition

Sattari’s central point, as reported, was that Iran had substantial plant knowledge and production capacity but had not converted all of it into export value. He described a gap between the country’s potential and its commercial position, then called for more scientific and technological support around market-ready products.

For an export strategy, growing the plant is only the first stage. A reliable chain also needs:

  • consistent identification and grading of raw material;
  • controlled drying, processing and storage;
  • laboratory documentation suited to the intended market;
  • clean packaging and traceable lots;
  • clear rules for food, cosmetic or medicinal uses;
  • buyers who understand the specification they are purchasing.

These practical steps explain why the speech linked research and technology with exports rather than treating sales as a simple result of cultivation.

A link to Iran’s scientific history

The report also referred to Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna, and al-Razi, or Rhazes. Their medical writings form part of the intellectual history behind Iran’s interest in plants and natural materials. The event used that heritage as context for modern research, translation and product development.

Historical importance alone cannot validate a present-day treatment claim. Traditional texts, modern laboratory work, clinical evidence and product regulation answer different questions. A plant’s presence in an old medical work should therefore be described as history, not as proof that a product treats disease.

Books unveiled during the event

The original report says that new editions or translations connected with classical medical literature were unveiled at the exhibition. Its English wording is damaged, but it specifically mentions material associated with Ibn Sina and the seventh and eighth books of al-Razi’s Al-Hawi. It also describes the work as assembled by medical-history scholars.

Without the original Persian catalogue, it would be unsafe to supply publication titles or editors that the surviving text does not clearly identify. The important point is that the exhibition combined commercial discussion with scholarship and public education.

Recognition for sector pioneers

The closing passage reports that pioneers in medicinal plants were honoured in the presence of the Vice-President and the Minister of Agriculture. Organisers hoped the second national festival and exhibition would mark the beginning of a more serious export programme for natural products and related knowledge.

That ambition depends on trust. Exporters need accurate product descriptions, supporting records and compliance with the destination market. Our guide to the working requirements for Iranian saffron exporters explains the commercial responsibilities in more practical terms.

How to read the $450 million figure today

The number is useful as a record of the scale discussed at the time, but it should not be compared directly with a current customs total. Exchange rates, reporting periods, commodity definitions and the inclusion of processed products can all change what an export figure represents. Later reports have also divided saffron from other medicinal plants in different ways.

For that reason, this page does not update the 2015 statement with an unrelated modern number. A current market analysis would need a named reporting period, a defined product set and a primary customs or ministry source. Here, the date and limitations are part of the story.

The lasting point of the report

The 2015 exhibition presented saffron as a bridge between Iran’s agricultural strengths and a broader medicinal plants economy. Its message was not simply that valuable crops existed. The country also needed research, careful processing, credible documentation and export channels capable of carrying that value to international buyers.

The headline figure may age, but that distinction remains useful: production potential and export readiness are not the same thing. Quality has to survive every step from field and laboratory to contract, package and delivery.