Senna Makki and the COVID-19 pandemic: a reflection from Pakistan

Kumar, Sahil; Naeem, Ramsha; Radhawi, Anum Syed Tauqir; Mahmood, Syed Uzair; Batool, Zehra; Naqi, Syed Roshaan Ahmed

doi:10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20205205

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…It is sold in herbal shops in Pakistan, India, and Arabia under the names senna or sana makki. It is broadly used in traditional Chinese, Indo-Pakistani, and African medicine, and it's also used in the allopathic medical system in Western countries ( Kumar et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comprehensive perspective of traditional Arabic or Islamic medicinal plants as an adjuvant therapy against COVID-19

Ahmed

Jamil

Ismatullah

et al. 2023

Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comprehensive perspective of traditional Arabic or Islamic medicinal plants as an adjuvant therapy against COVID-19

Ahmed

Jamil

Ismatullah

et al. 2023

Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences

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“…While the effectiveness of some medicinal plants has been scientifically proven, there is a global tendency for self-medication with different herbal medicines without proper scientific evidence. There has been a myth regarding the use of famous Senna tea in treatment of Covid19 that has eventually lead to its excessive use followed by a drastic hike in prices [ 9 , 10 ]. It is generally used as an herbal tea made from Senna pods or leaves cultivated in different countries having different species commonly known as Alexandrian Senna , Tinnevelly Senna , Indian Senna , and Sanna Makki .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Senna makki and other active phytochemicals: Myths and realities behind covid19 therapeutic interventions

Zaman

Parvaiz²,

Farid³

et al. 2022

PLoS ONE

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This study aims to investigate the binding potential of chemical compounds of Senna in comparison with the experimentally tested active phytochemicals against SARS-CoV-2 protein targets to assist in prevention of infection by exploring multiple treatment options. The entire set of phytochemicals from both the groups were subjected to advanced computational analysis that explored functional molecular descriptors from a set of known medicinal-based active therapeutics followed by MD simulations on multiple SARS-CoV-2 target proteins. Our findings manifest the importance of hydrophobic substituents in chemical structures of potential inhibitors through cross-validation with the FDA-approved anti-3CLpro drugs. Noteworthy improvement in end-point binding free energies and pharmacokinetic profiles of the proposed compounds was perceived in comparison to the control drug, vizimpro. Moreover, the identification of common drug targets namely; AKT1, PTGS1, TNF, and DPP4 between proposed active phytochemicals and Covid19 using network pharmacological analysis further substantiate the importance of medicinal scaffolds. The structural dynamics and binding affinities of phytochemical compounds xanthoangelol_E, hesperetin, and beta-sitosterol reported as highly potential against 3CLpro in cell-based and cell-free assays are consistent with the computational analysis. Whereas, the secondary metabolites such as sennosides A, B, C, D present in higher amount in Senna exhibited weak binding affinity and instability against the spike protein, helicase nsp13, RdRp nsp12, and 3CLpro. In conclusion, the results contravene fallacious efficacy claims of Senna tea interventions circulating on electronic/social media as Covid19 cure; thus emphasizing the importance of well-examined standardized data of the natural products in hand; thereby preventing unnecessary deaths under pandemic hit situations worldwide.

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“…Moreover, there was a big leap of faith over a large number of home remedies for the elimination of this new virus. These include steam inhalation, gargling with warm water, salt solution, and vinegar [26], consumption of herb leaves "sana makki, " which has laxative properties [27,28], eating ginger, garlic, and black seeds [20]. Besides nutritional benefits, self-medicating with food supplements, herbal concoctions and various spices is unsafe and may cause serious health risks due to incorrect dosage, naturally occurring toxins in herbs, allergic reactions, and unknown drug interactions [25,29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Myths and misconception of COVID-19 among hospital sanitary workers in Pakistan: Efficacy of a training program intervention

Malik

Musharraf

Safdar

et al. 2022

BMC Health Serv Res

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Objective Hospital sanitary workers are among the prime source to disseminate information at a massive level, however they received least attention during the pandemic COVID-19. The study was designed to investigate the prevailing myths and misconceptions of the coronavirus pandemic among the sanitary workers of health care system. Further, a systematic training program is devised and tested to demystify the false myths with discerning truth and awareness-raising in hospital sanitary workers. Method A pre-post face-to-face intervention design was opted and the intervention was conducted at five locations by the project team. The intervention consisted a 3 days training program to target myths and misconceptions of hospital sanitary workers. The study was completed in 8 months starting from August, 2019 to March, 2020. Participants were recruited from local hospitals having a specialized indoor COVID treatment facility. The sample consisted of 82 participants (n = 25, 30.09% females) with age ranging from 18 to 60 years (M ± SD = 37.41 ± 10.09). Findings The results indicated that 86.4% of the participants never heard the name of the coronavirus before the pandemic in Pakistan. A majority of the participants (> 50%) believed on a very alarming but unrealistic rate of mortality i.e., 30–60%. The pre-testing showed a high prevalence of myths in all four domains (i.e., popular treatments = 24.44, conspiracy myths = 7.93, home remedies = 16.46, and COVID-reliance = 7.82). The pre and post comparison of individual myths showed significant improvement on 24 of the 26 myths with a decline ranging from 0.18 to 1.63. Overall, the intervention significantly decreased scores on all four domains of coronavirus myths. Conclusion The training intervention appeared to effectively reduce myths and misconceptions of sanitary staff workers and is advised to be included as a standard training program for sanitary workers of health care system.

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Senna Makki and the COVID-19 pandemic: a reflection from Pakistan

Cited by 4 publications

References 8 publications

A comprehensive perspective of traditional Arabic or Islamic medicinal plants as an adjuvant therapy against COVID-19

A comprehensive perspective of traditional Arabic or Islamic medicinal plants as an adjuvant therapy against COVID-19

Senna makki and other active phytochemicals: Myths and realities behind covid19 therapeutic interventions

Myths and misconception of COVID-19 among hospital sanitary workers in Pakistan: Efficacy of a training program intervention

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