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Background Ethnomedicine, a study of traditional medicine, is significant in drug discovery and development. African traditional medicine has been in existence for several thousands of years, and several drugs have been discovered and developed from it. Main text The deadly coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by a novel coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 has widely spread globally with high mortality and morbidity. Its prevention, treatment and management still pose a serious challenge. A drug for the cure of this disease is yet to be developed. The clinical management at present is based on symptomatic treatment as presented by individuals infected and this is by combination of more than two drugs such as antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic, and anti-microbials. Literature search was performed through electronic searches of PubMed, Google Scholar, and several research reports including WHO technical documents and monographs. Conclusion Drug discovery from herbs is essential and should be exploited for the discovery of drugs for the management of COVID-19. This review is aimed at identifying ethnomedicinal herbs available in Africa that could be used for the discovery and development of a drug for the prevention, treatment, and management of the novel coronavirus disease 2019.

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A study has been made of the effects of sun and oven drying methods on the physicochemical characteristics and compressibility of Okra powder and the release properties of its metronidazole tablet formulation. Corn starch was used as the reference standard. The mechanical properties of the tablets were evaluated using crushing strength and friability, while the release properties were determined using the disintegration times and dissolution rates. The results obtained showed that sun-dried Okra powder had smaller particle size, exhibited good flow and possessed higher hydration and swelling capacities compared to the oven dried samples. The compressibility of Okra powders assessed by the indices of plasticity from Heckel (Py) and Kawakita plots (Pk) showed that sun dried Okra powders had higher Py but lower Pk values than the oven-dried Okra powder. Metronidazole tablets formulated with oven dried Okra powder formed stronger tablets than tablets containing sun dried Okra powder. Generally, tablets containing sun dried Okra powders had faster disintegration and dissolution than tablets formulated with oven-dried powder. The results suggest that the choice of drying method during the processing of pharmaceutical raw materials is critical to its physicochemical properties and the release properties of its tablet formulations.