Properties of Ethno-Medicinal Plants and Their Bioactives-Possible Use for Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19: A Review.

Shoaib, Ambreen; Azmi, Lubna; Shukla, Ila; Alqahtani, Saad S; Alsarra, Ibrahim A; Shakeel, Faiyaz

The beginning of year 2020 comes with a "Pandemic" i.e., Corona virus disease-19 (COVID-19) that changes the scenario of the world. It begins from China and covers the globe and as a result it causes destruction of human being and also affects the quality of life. Till date, there are no optional treatment or prevention options. Discovery of new drug will take time and may be after some time it will produce resistance to the virus and different side effects. Hence, in the surge of a drug which can work as a preventive; again we go back to the mother nature to find some jewels from natural origin. On the basis of reported data in literatures, we select different natural compounds that can act as a potential target, at a low cost with broad spectrum activity. In this review, various ethno-medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds are summarized and analyzed as a source to encourage their use as an antiviral drug for the prevention and treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or COVID-19. Based on the reports available, it was concluded that the medicinal herbs can be used as an alternative source that can offer as a novel promising antiviral agent that might be directly or indirectly inhibit the progression of novel COVID-19.