Following the price increase of medicines in the opposition-controlled areas in northwest Syria, many Syrians have started resorting to herbal medicine to treat diseases. The Syrian regime’s Ministry of Health has raised prices twice in the past months — most recently in February.

Abu Abd al-Rahman from Idlib countryside has been a herbal medicine specialist for 18 years. “Herbal medicine is an alternative for modern scientific medicine, and it cannot be ignored. Over the past couple of years, demand for herbal medicine has significantly increased,” he told Al-Monitor.

He attributed the reasons for the increasing demand to the expensive doctor consultations and overpriced medicines that do not take into account the difficult living conditions in the area. He said that alternative medicine — medicinal herbs, natural ointments, cupping and acupuncture — succeeds in treating some pathological conditions and outperforms modern medicine.

Abd al-Rahman noted, “I have treated many diseases — even chronic ones such as diabetes, disc disease and heart disease — and patients have found positive results.”