In Iranian medicine, maturation (nozj) is a process, through which the morbid matters (morbid humors) are prepared for evacuation and their evacuation from the body is facilitated. In other words, physician should mature the morbid matters before evacuating them from the body, except in certain condition, in which there not enough time for the process. Maturation before evacuation have been considered to be necessary and confirmed by hakims. It is considered that vomiting and excretion of morbid matters before their maturation may aggravate the disease.
For maturation, each humor should be in a balanced concentration, which is different for each humor. Therefore, there are several maturative drugs, and each humor has its own maturative drug. However, to achieve the desired result, considering the time and spatial conditions is necessary. Moreover, the type and severity of disease for each individual patient should be taken into account.
Identifying maturation and its application are necessary for studying and evaluation of treatment protocols in Iranian medicine. If maturation, which is a treatment step in Iranian medicine, is not considered, studies on therapeutic methods of Iranian medicine would be misinterpreted. Moreover, paying attention to maturation process beside the current treatments may promote current treatment approaches.