Potential of herbal products in prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Literature review

Abstract

The COVID-19 epidemy is the greatest pandemic that human kind experienced for decades, with high morbidity and mortality. Despite recent development of vaccines there is still many severe cases of COVID-19. Unfortunately there is still no standardised therapies and treatment of severe cases is very challenging. The aim of this study is to indicate if herbs administered alone or as a complementary therapy could be used as prophylaxis or treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Over 85% of patients with COVID-19 in China used Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and a most common herb is Glycyrrhiza glabra, which in vitro inhibits replication of different enveloped viruses, including coronaviruses. Glycyrrhizin in vitro connects and changes conformation of ACE2 receptors, which are vital for SARS-CoV-2 penetration into host cells. Pelargonium sidoides show immunomodulatory and antiviral properties in clinical and in vitro studies, and it inhibits replication of HCo-229E coronavirus. Glycyrrhiza glabra in combination with standard therapies significantly reduces the hospitalization rate and occurrence of COVID-19 symptoms. As complementary therapies lianhuaqingwen capsules and jinhua qinggan granules reduces hospitalization rates, time to symptoms recovery and improve patient psychological comfort. In view of SARS-CoV-2 other herbs are not effective, e.g. maxingshigan–yinqiaosan, or therapeutic concentration would be impossible to achieve, e.g. ephedra herb, or there is simply no proper data. Therefore, Liquorice and Pelargonium sidoides are effective against coronaviruses and could be possibly used as prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19, while lianhuaqingwen capsules and jinhua qinggan granules can be useful as a complementary therapy to conventional treatment.

Revisiting liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra L.) as anti-inflammatory, antivirals and immunomodulators: Potential pharmacological applications with mechanistic insight.

“…Several mechanisms have been identified and have been depicted in figure 4 . Moreover, several recent study on G. glabra in combination with standard therapies demonstrated significantly reduction of hospitalization rate and occurrence of COVID-19 symptoms ( Armanini et al, 2020 ; Zhong et al, 2020 ; Gajewski et al, 2021 ; Li et al, 2021a ; 2021b ). Recently, several targets have been identified with the possible interaction of medicinal plants included liquorice a hopeful therapeutic for future drug ( Bandyopadhyay et al, 2021 ; Shakhsi-Niaei et al, 2021 ; Tsai et al, 2021 ).…”

Rational phytotherapy as an alternative treatment for acute respiratory tract infections

“…Many plant products have been tested for their ability to inhibit viral entry into respiratory epithelial cells. The best documented effect was achieved in the research on Pelargonium sidoides and Glycyrrhiza glabra (liquorice), a plant widespread in Asia and the Mediterranean regions (43) . The results of an in vitro study conducted by an international team of researchers on SARS-CoV-2infected human lung cells are very promising (44) .…”

Measuring Productivity and Relative Efficiency of Public Tertiary Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospitals in Hubei, China

“…Gajewski et al conducted a literature review and reported that over 85% of COVID-19 patients in China used TCM, and the most common herb (Glycyrrhiza glabra), when combined with standard therapies, significantly reduced hospitalization rates and COVID-19 symptom occurrence. 3 TCM hospitals paly a dominant role in providing TCM services in China. 4 However, these hospitals face various challenges, such as lower pricing of TCM outpatient services compared to Western medical services, 5 significant loss of human resources, and an imbalanced structure of health professionals.…”