Natural Products for the Prevention and Control of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Sustainable Bioresources

• Published in: Frontiers in pharmacology 2021-12, Vol.12, p.758159
• Main Authors: Singla, Rajeev K, He, Xuefei, Chopra, Hitesh, Tsagkaris, Christos, Shen, Li, Kamal, Mohammad Amjad, Shen, Bairong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: complementary medicine; intestinal microbiota; Pharmacology; polyherbal formulation; pro-inflammatory markers; SARS-CoV-2; secondary metabolites
• ISSN: 1663-9812; 1663-9812
• DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2021.758159

The world has been unprecedentedly hit by a global pandemic which broke the record of deadly pandemics that faced humanity ever since its existence. Even kids are well-versed in the terminologies and basics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 now. The vaccination program has been successfully launched in various countries, given that the huge global population of concern is still far behind to be vaccinated. Furthermore, the scarcity of any potential drug against the COVID-19-causing virus forces scientists and clinicians to search for alternative and complementary medicines on a war-footing basis. The present review aims to cover and analyze the etiology and epidemiology of COVID-19, the role of intestinal microbiota and pro-inflammatory markers, and most importantly, the natural products to combat this deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus. A primary literature search was conducted through PubMed and Google Scholar using relevant keywords. Natural products were searched from January 2020 to November 2020. No timeline limit has been imposed on the search for the biological sources of those phytochemicals. Interactive mapping has been done to analyze the multi-modal and multi-target sources. The intestinal microbiota and the pro-inflammatory markers that can serve the prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19 were discussed. The literature search resulted in yielding 70 phytochemicals and ten polyherbal formulations which were scientifically analyzed against the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its targets and found significant. Retrospective analyses led to provide information about 165 biological sources that can also be screened if not done earlier. The interactive analysis mapping of biological sources with phytochemicals and targets as well as that of phytochemical class with phytochemicals and COVID-19 targets yielded insights into the multitarget and multimodal evidence-based complementary medicines.