Persian carrot, Neglected medicinal plant

The Persian carrot is one of the medicinal plants and native herbs of dry and warm desert regions of Iran, which has been cultivated in most parts of Iran for some decades, but in the last half century, due to the arrival of modified carrots (Daucus carrota), Iranian carrot cultivation were mostly abandoned. The primary origin of the Persian carrot is the plateau of Iran, Afghanistan and the Asia Minor. In this paper, a field study was conducted in Aran and Bidgol city in order to identify the characteristics of the neglected medicinal plant of Zardak and to investigate the causes of the withdrawal of this medicinal plant from Iran's agricultural system. In this research, we tried to select five expert farmers in four farms that are currently engaged in the cultivation of Iranian yellow carrots, in addition to expressing the unique characteristics of this neglected medicinal plant, the way of cultivating this native plant in the agricultural lands of Aran and Bidgol is determined. By referring to the Iranian carrot cultivating fields during the period from 2016 to 2017, and taking notes of the phenology of this plant; the planting, keeping and harvesting stages were investigated in Aran and Bidgol farms. The results showed that Iranian carrots as an indigenous medicinal plant is not only compatible with dry and warm desert climate of Aran and Bidgol farms, but also due to its deploy ability characteristics in arable lands with water and saline soils, it displays high potential for production compared to other medicinal plants and foreign crops.