Interest of botanicals for COVID-19

For many years, medicinal plants have been used for the management of viral diseases. The new COVID-19 epidemic is devoid of any effective and widely accepted medication. One lead to identify effective treatment is therefore medicinal plants.

Some plants have already been shown to be effective against other respiratory viruses, as influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus or sever acute respiratory syndrome, as for instance Astragalus membranaceus, Ecklonia cava, Gymnema sylvestre, or Polygonum multiflorum (Adhikari et al., 2020). Quercetin is also a promising option, since it has been shown to interfere with CODIV-19 replication (Derosa et al., 2020). Cat’s claw (Uncaria tomentosa) may inhibit the main protease of COVID-19 virus, suggesting it’s potential effectiveness as complementary and/or alternative medicine for COVID-19 treatment (Yepes-Perez et al., 2020).

Medicinal plants are used since century for the management of various diseases, and are once again a potential solution for the current COVID-19 epidemic.

Adhikari B, Marasini BP, Rayamajhee B, Bhattarai BR, Lamichhane G, Khadayat K, Adhikari A, Khanal S, Parajuli N. Potential roles of medicinal plants for the treatment of viral diseases focusing on COVID-19: A review. Phytother Res. 2020 Oct 9.Derosa G, Maffioli P, D’Angelo A, Di Pierro F. A role for quercetin in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Phytother Res. 2020 Oct 9. Yepes-Pérez AF, Herrera-Calderon O, Sánchez-Aparicio JE, Tiessler-Sala L, Maréchal JD, Cardona-G W. Investigating Potential Inhibitory Effect of Uncaria tomentosa (Cat’s Claw) against the Main Protease 3CLpro of SARS-CoV-2 by Molecular Modeling. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020 Sep 30;2020:4932572.