A Recent Review of Medical Uses of Bioactive Secondary Metabolites from Some Plants Available in the Kurdistan Region

Plant secondary metabolites (SM) exhibit a wide range of biological and pharmacological properties, and they have been and are still used to treat and improve many health issues and disorders. Therefore, this review highlights many important medicinal plants available in the Kurdistan region that contain potent bioactive secondary metabolites and have been investigated for their pharmacological activities by many researchers worldwide. It will provide information about the plants, their SMs, and their various applications: as antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antiparasitic, antidiabetic, antioxidant/anticancer agents, and human system function promoters, addressing the growing concern of bacterial resistance to synthetic drugs. This provides an opportunity to utilize them to improve human health and discover new herbal medicines. Also underscores the importance of further investigation into these natural compounds for developing novel pharmacological treatments, particularly in regions like Kurdistan.