Potential antiviral efficacy of herbal drugs to fight against COVID-19

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Medicinal Plants
Vol. 13 (3), September 2021, 365-368
*Corresponding author e-mail: meghapatan@gmail.com
IndianJournals.com
A product of Diva Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.
doi : 10.5958/0975-6892.2021.00042.3
Potential antiviral efficacy of herbal drugs to fight against COVID-19
Megha Shrivastava1* and Devendra Kumar2
1Department of Zoology, Govt. P.G. College Guna, Madhya Pradesh, India
2Department of Zoology, University College of Science, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
Received: April 16, 2021; Accepted: July 05, 2021
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered virus named as Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that belongs to the coronavirus family. It was immersed in December,
2019 and has become a pandemic. Thousands of clinical treatments are undergoing to cure the disease. There is an urgent
need to explore the available antiviral drugs which are used to treat different viral infections. Herbal medicines are reported
to fight against viruses by boosting the immune system. This article summarised some of available drugs from herbal
medicines which could be useful for treatment of COVID-19.
Keywords: Corona virus, treatment, herbal drugs
INTRODUCTION
COVID-19 was first reported in December from Wuhan city
of China. Later it quickly spread all over the world due to
its high contagious nature and was declared as a public
health emergency by WHO. Cases of COVID-19 are
increasing day by day, and there have been 179,686,071
confirmed cases and 3,899,172 deaths up to 25 June, 2021
(WHO, 2021). This virus is similar to earlier coronavirus
SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV (Gurunathan et al., 2020). It
probably originated from bats and spread to other mammal
hosts as it belongs to a single stranded RNA family which
can cross species barriers and create respiratory
complications in humans.
Currently, thousands of clinical trials are going on to
explore the effective treatment against COVID-19 in
different countries. Some of the tested drugs are proved to
be effective for other viral diseases like SARS-CoV and
MERS-CoV and right now they are also being tested for
COVID-19 treatment. There is an urgent need to develop
more effective antiviral agents from herbal sources to fight
against COVID-19. In this article, we have discussed some
herbal remedies that may be used for the treatment of
COVID-19.
There are some chemical drugs which are currently used
to treat COVID-19 such as: Tocilizumab, Chloroquine,
Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), Favipiravir, Umifenovir,
Remdesivir, Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and Lopinavir-ritonavir.
Tocilizumab prevents the inflammation in lungs and other
body tissue caused due to COVID-19. It also normalises the
count of lymphocytes in blood which indicates its
effectiveness (Luo et al., 2020) and reduces the symptoms
of COVID-19 like fever, oxygen level and other blood
factors significantly (Xu et al., 2020). Chloroquine drug is
used widely for the treatment of malaria and viral infection
(Savarino et al., 2006). So it can be used to treat the
pneumonia, caused by COVID-19 (Gao et al., 2020).
Similarly, hydroxychloroquine affects the normal activities
of viruses like viral replication, viral assembly and virus
release (Fox, 1993) and is responsible for controlling the
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Megha Shrivastava and Devendra Kumar
inflammation, caused by COVID-19. A pharmacological
study also reported that the hydro-chloroquine drug is more
effective than chloroquine at lower concentration (EC)
value (Yao et al., 2020). Favipiravir and umifenovir drugs
have also shown their efficacy to inhibit the multiplication
of COVID-19 virus (Wang et al., 2020a; Wang et al., 2020b;
Zhen et al., 2020). The most commonly used drug remdesivir
exhibited promising activity against COVID-19 (Holshue
et al., 2020) and proven as a highly effective agent like
chloroquine for treatment of COVID-19 patients due to its
effectiveness at lower concentration (Wang et al., 2020a).
Oseltamivir or Tamiflu drug is also under clinical trials for
their effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Herbal remedy of COVID-19
Plants have been proven a potent option for treatment of
many diseases or health problems due to the presence of
active components such as alkaloids, steroids, minerals,
antioxidants, vitamins and proteins etc. There are thousands
of plants and their formulations that are scientifically
proved as powerful medicine to treat various bacterial, viral
and other infectious diseases. These plants have capability
to treat fever, cough, pain, diarrhoea and gastrointestinal
problems etc. In case of SARS-CoV-2 infection it causes
fever, cough and respiratory complications which can be
treated by previously used herbal medicines. Numerous
plants are under clinical trials at present against COVID-19
but still there is not a single effective agent identified to
treat the disease, however there are some plant products
which may be recommended for effective treatment of
COVID-19.
Lycoris radiata (L’Hér.) Herb
It is also commonly known as red spider lily. Lycorine is
an alkaloid that is isolated from fractionation of L. radiata
which was assessed against SARS-CoV. Further results
revealed that it has capability to inhibit the viral replication
at low concentration also without any side-effects (Li et al.,
2005).
Alstonia scholaris (L.) R.Br.
Alstonia scholaris (L.) R.Br. is a tropical evergreen tree
commonly known as “Saptparny”. It has huge
pharmacological properties and is used for treatment of fever,
ulcers, cancer, asthma etc. The leaves of A. scholaris were
found effective for the treatment of asthma in rats and guinea
pigs in an experiment and this effectiveness was due to
broncho-vasodilatory activity mediated by prostaglandin.
It’s root extract was also found effective by relaxing calcium
chloride induced contraction (Channa et al., 2005).
Ficus religiosa L.
Ficus religiosa L. is a plant that has been used as traditional
medicine in India, and possesses lots of medicinal
properties. Its leaf extract is evaluated for breathing
problems in guinea pigs and also effective by reduction of
histamine and acetylcholine enzymes and further helpful
to cure respiratory problems in COVID-19 patients (Kapoor
et al., 2011).
Ocimum sanctum L.
Ocimum sanctum L. is an Indian traditional herb commonly
called “tulsi”, used as a medicinal remedy for many years.
It has many therapeutic potentials like antibacterial,
antiviral, anti-inflammatory and immune booster etc.
(Jamshidi and Cohen, 2017). For the treatment of
pneumonia, it is a best option and also proven a potent
antiviral agent. This plant is being used for treatment of
diarrhoea, pain, cough and fever, which are the common
symptoms of COVID-19 (Goothy et al., 2020).
Allium sativum L.
It is commonly known as “garlic” and has many active
ingredients including organo-sulphur and non-sulphur
which possess promising antiviral properties, as it boosts
the immune system and has antioxidant properties. These
properties of A. sativum along with the broad spectrum of
antibiotic property may be useful for treatment of COVID-
19 (Schoeman and Fielding, 2019).
Zingiber officinalis Roscoe
It is commonly known as “ginger” used worldwide for
medicinal purposes. It has a number of medicinal properties
such as antibacterial, anticancer and antifungal etc. It can
fight infectious bacteria and viruses by boosting the
immune system and increasing the metabolic activity of the
body (Pradhan et al., 2013).

Medicinal Plants, 13(3) September 2021
Potential antiviral efficacy of herbal drugs to fight against COVID-19 367
Piper betel L.
It is a vedic plant commonly known as “Saptasira”,
possessing various activities such as antioxidant, anti-
cancerous, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic against
viral diseases. It contains a dark yellow colour essential oil
which can be used as medicine, antiseptic and tonic
(Gundala and Aneja, 2014). Fruits of P. betel can also be
used as an effective remedy for the cough and breathing
problems (Aruljothi et al., 2016).
Withania somnifera L.
It is an ayurvedic plant having antiviral property by
interrupting the entry of virus, boosting the immune system
and blocking the interaction of host and protein (Keivan
et al., 2012). It also decreases the electrostatic component
free energies of ACE2-RBD complex (Mi-Sun et al., 2008).
These properties could be useful for treatment of COVID-
19.
Tinospora cordifolia Thunb.
Commonly known as “Giloy”, T. cordifolia has numerous
medicinal properties and also used as immunity booster.
Herbal formulation of T. cordifolia is popularly used for
curing the cough and fever. Currently it is suggested to be
used used for treatment of COVID-19. A phytochemical
named “tinocordiside’’ isolated from giloy exhibit
inhibition of main protease of SARS-CoV-2 (Shree et al.,
2020) and some other isolated compounds i.e., berberine,
isocolumbin and magnoflorine, effect the replication and
attachment of SARS-CoV-2 by binding with key surface
glycoproteins, receptor binding domain (6M0J) and RNA
dependent RNA polymerase (6M71) (Sagar and Kumar,
2020).
Echinacea purpurea L.
It is a common medicinal plant known as “Purple
coneflower”. The medicinal importance of this plant is due
to the presence of bioactive compounds like chicoric acid,
caffeic acids, polysaccharides and alkylamides (Barnes et
al., 2005). In America, it is used for treatment of respiratory
infections for several years. Various studies have revealed
that E. purpurea have immune-modulatory activities by
stimulating the release of various cytokines (Burger et al.,
1997) and proven very effective against enveloped viruses
(Sharma et al., 2009). By considering the above properties,
the plant may be recommended to treat the COVID-19
patients.
Curcuma longa L.
Curcumin is a very active constituent of plant C. longa and
has lots of clinical properties including antiviral, anti-
inflammatory and antipyretic. It has several molecular
actions like: antioxidant, antiapoptotic and antifibrotic.
These properties suggest that curcumin could be potentially
used for treatment of COVID-19 (Babaei et al., 2020).
Curcumin also helps to decrease hypertension in COVID-
19 patients by inhibiting the activity of angiotensin
converting enzyme (ACE), which increases during
hypertension (Alhenc-Gelas et al., 2019; Fang et al., 2020).
CONCLUSION
In the current situation there is not a single drug available
to treat the deadly disease COVID-19. Hence the available
drugs with potential antiviral properties are the best options,
to treat COVID-19 and other similar types of viral diseases.
The mentioned herbs in the manuscript may be helpful to
treat COVID-19 symptoms after the scientific and clinical
trials to overcome the current situation of corona pandemic.
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