Evaluation of certain medicinal plants compounds as new potential inhibitors of novel corona virus (COVID-19) using molecular docking analysis

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 is a new strain of coronavirus that appeared in China in December 2019, in recent years, great progress has been made in developing new antiviral drugs, and natural products, are important sources of potential and new antiviral drugs. The present study aimed to assess some biologically active compounds present in medicinal plants as potential COVID-19 inhibitors, using molecular docking methods. The Docking study was performed by Molecular Operating Environment software (MOE). About 20 Compounds were screened in this study; these compounds were selected based on classification of their chemical origin and their antiviral activity from literature. These compounds might be used to inhibit COVID-19 infection. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of this screening strategy, which can lead to rapid drug discovery in response to new infectious diseases. The results showed that many compounds isolated from medicinal plants such as; Gallic acid (- 17.45), Quercetin (- 15.81), Naringin (- 14.50), Capsaicin (- 13.90), and Psychotrine (- 13.5) are important sources for novel antiviral drugs targeting COVID-19.