A Review on Ayurvedic Medicinal Herbs as Remedial Perspective for COVID-19

Introduction: Recent outbreaks in a new type of coronavirus, novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease causing respiratory infection have significantly hampered the public health. Medicinal plants used in traditional practices provide enormous scope to bring out viable alternatives against viral diseases, considering non-availability of suitable drug and increasing resistance to existing drug as well as re-emerging viral diseases. The present review on use of plants and related phytochemicals for the treatment of viral diseases particularly COVID-19, preclinical and clinical information is increased concern Methods: The methodological activities involved during a literature review were; (1) designing the review concept, (2) conducting the review on review papers, research papers, bulletins, official websites, (3) analysis of previous publications and (4) writing up the review paper. The integrative literature review and paper preparation process was done from our own practical experience and influenced by various standards and guidelines suggested in the publications. Results: Herbal medicines and their active phytochemicals against some viral pathogens including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) the virus that causes COVID-19 pandemic, middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS-COV), rhinovirus, human herpes virus (HSV-I & II), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), coxsackievirus (CV), enterovirus 71 (EV71), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), herpes simplex virus, influenza A/H1N1 virus, coronavirus (CoV) etc were extensively reviewed. Ayurvedic herbal products could be useful to select as an alternative and integrated approach to decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with coronavirus infection and enhance host immunity against viral attack in the context of treatment vaccine of COVID-19 could be years away. Conclusion: The traditional practices and scientific evidence of several medicinal herbs and their phytochemicals against lethal viral infections in-vivo and in-vitro studies could be useful for the future as a novel source of natural products in particular focus on COVID-19