Medicinal plants as recent complementary and alternative therapy for covid-19: A review

Abstract

The World Health Organization stated COVID-19 became a pandemic since March 11, 2020. With the absence of a vaccine and standard treatment for Covid-19 infection, individual protection including maintaining personal hygiene, consumption of food, vegetables and fruit that can increase immunity is the key to preventing COVID-19. The combination of herbs and modern therapy can contribute to lower mortality rates and a faster response in controlling outbreaks. This review is aimed to determine plants that have effect on coronavirus infection, mechanism of action, dosage, toxic effect, thus can be beneficial for strengthening health against covid-19. This research is a literature review that search articles using Google Scholar, ResearchGate, NCBI, PubMed, Web of Science and Semantic Scholar, used a combination keywords related to coronavirus or COVID-19, SARS CoV-2, herb, natural compound, mechanism of action, dosage, toxic effect, meta-analysis, review. Curcuma longa, Cinnamon, Glycyrrhizin, Kaempferia galanga, Eucalyptus essential oil, black tea, were plants that have pieces of evidence as anti-coronavirus. The molecular mechanism of these plants as anti-virals varies by inhibiting entry, blocking viral receptors, inhibiting enzymes, enhancing immune system, interfering with signal transduction, relief symptoms. Therefore, plant products used in the right dose could be beneficial against coronavirus infection.