Potential medicinal plants involved in inhibiting 3CLpro activity: A practical alternate approach to combating COVID-19.

At present, a variety of vaccines have been approved, and existing antiviral drugs are being tested to find an effective treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, no standardized treatment has yet been approved by the World Health Organization. The virally encoded chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro) from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which facilitates the replication of SARS-CoV in the host cells, is one potential pharmacological target for the development of anti-SARS drugs. Online search engines, such as Web of Science, Google Scholar, Scopus and PubMed, were used to retrieve data on the traditional uses of medicinal plants and their inhibitory effects against the SARS-CoV 3CLpro. Various pure compounds, including polyphenols, terpenoids, chalcones, alkaloids, biflavonoids, flavanones, anthraquinones and glycosides, have shown potent inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro activity with 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) values ranging from 2-44 µg/mL. Interestingly, most of these active compounds, including xanthoangelol E (isolated from Angelica keiskei), dieckol 1 (isolated from Ecklonia cava), amentoflavone (isolated from Torreya nucifera), celastrol, pristimerin, tingenone and iguesterin (isolated from Tripterygium regelii), tannic acid (isolated from Camellia sinensis), and theaflavin-3,3'-digallate, 3-isotheaflav1in-3 gallate and dihydrotanshinone I (isolated from Salvia miltiorrhiza), had IC50 values of less than 15 µg/mL. Kinetic mechanistic studies of several active compounds revealed that their mode of inhibition was dose-dependent and competitive, with Ki values ranging from 2.4-43.8 µmol/L. Given the significance of plant-based compounds and the many promising results obtained, there is still need to explore the phytochemical and mechanistic potentials of plants and their products. These medicinal plants could serve as an effective inexpensive nutraceutical for the general public to help manage COVID-19.

Ethnobotany in the Andes and the Amazon in a world of Nagoya Protocol and post SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Plants provide humankind with our most basic resources — food, medicines, fiber, and a whole array of other useful products. Relatives of wild crops and traditional plant varieties have been the foundation of crop domestication, plant breeding, and indeed the whole of modern agriculture. Plants provide the molecular basis of many pharmaceuticals, as direct compounds or as molecular blueprints. Modern science has started to confirm that the distinction between nutrition and medicine is blurred. With economic development empowering a greater percentage of the world’s people, urban areas continuing to expand, and human populations projected to double in the next 50 years, it seems certain that natural resources will face increasing threat. Habitat loss, unsustainable extraction of plants, spread of invasive species, climate change, and other human activities will have tremendous impacts. In this overview, we assess the changes in ethnobotanical research in the Andes and Amazon in the last decades using the Chábobo Ethnobotany Project as an example for modern ethnobotanical research under Convention on Biological Diversity and the attached Nagoya Protocol, and reflect on the possibilities of using this model for future ethnobotanical studies in a post-SARS-CoV-2 world.Alternate :Les plantes fournissent à l’humanité nos ressources les plus élémentaires — nourriture, médicaments, fibres et toute une gamme d’autres produits utiles. Les parents des cultures sauvages et des variétés traditionnelles ont été à la base de la domestication des cultures, de la sélection végétale et, en fait. Les plantes fournissent la base moléculaire de nombreux produits pharmaceutiques, sous forme de composés directs ou de plans moléculaires. La science moderne commence à confirmer que la distinction entre nutrition et médecine est floue. Étant donné que le développement économique autonomise un plus grand pourcentage de la population mondiale, que les zones urbaines continuent de s’étendre et que la population humaine devrait doubler au cours des 50 prochaines années, il semble certain que les ressources naturelles seront de plus en plus menacées. La perte d’habitat, l’extraction non durable de plantes, la propagation d’espèces envahissantes, le changement climatique et d’autres activités humaines auront un impact considérable. Les espèces végétales seront perdues, la diversité génétique des espèces survivantes sera diminuée et les connaissances traditionnelles associées à l’utilisation des plantes seront érodées. Dans cet aperçu, nous évaluons les changements dans la recherche ethnobotanique dans les Andes et l’Amazonie au cours des dernières décennies en utilisant le Projet Ethnobotanique Chábobo comme exemple pour la recherche ethnobotanique moderne dans le cadre de la Convention sur la diversité biologique et du Protocole de Nagoya, et réfléchir aux possibilités d’utiliser ce modèle pour de futures études ethnobotaniques dans un monde SARS-CoV-2.

Food as medicine: A possible preventive measure against coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The recent and ongoing outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a huge global challenge. The outbreak, which first occurred in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China and then rapidly spread to other provinces and to more than 200 countries abroad, has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. Those with compromised immune systems and/or existing respiratory, metabolic or cardiac problems are more susceptible to the infection and are at higher risk of serious illness or even death. The present review was designed to report important functional food plants with immunomodulatory and anti-viral properties. Data on medicinal food plants were retrieved and downloaded from English-language journals using online search engines. The functional food plants herein documented might not only enhance the immune system and cure respiratory tract infections but can also greatly impact the overall health of the general public. As many people in the world are now confined to their homes, inclusion of these easily accessible plants in the daily diet may help to strengthen the immune system and guard against infection by SARS-CoV-2. This might reduce the risk of COVID-19 and initiate a rapid recovery in cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Taming the pandemic? The importance of homemade plant-based foods and beverages as community responses to COVID-19.

Household responses to COVID-19 in different corners of the world represent the primary health care that communities have relied on for preventing and mitigating symptoms. During a very complex and confusing time, in which public health services in multiple countries have been completely overwhelmed, and in some cases even collapsed, these first-line household responses have been quintessential for building physical, mental, and social resilience, and for improving individual and community health. This editorial discusses the outcomes of a rapid-response preliminary survey during the first phase of the pandemic among social and community contacts in five metropolises heavily affected by the COVID-19 health crisis (Wuhan, Milan, Madrid, New York, and Rio de Janeiro), and in twelve rural areas or countries initially less affected by the pandemic (Appalachia, Jamaica, Bolivia, Romania, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia, Turkey, Pakistan, Cambodia, and South Africa). We summarized our perspectives as 17 case studies, observing that people have relied primarily on teas and spices ("food-medicines") and that there exist clear international plant favorites, popularized by various new media. Urban diasporas and rural households seem to have repurposed homemade plant-based remedies that they use in normal times for treating the flu and other respiratory symptoms or that they simply consider healthy foods. The most remarkable shift in many areas has been the increased consumption of ginger and garlic, followed by onion, turmeric, and lemon. Our preliminary inventory of food medicines serves as a baseline for future systematic ethnobotanical studies and aims to inspire in-depth research on how use patterns of plant-based foods and beverages, both "traditional" and "new", are changing during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Our reflections in this editorial call attention to the importance of ethnobiology, ethnomedicine, and ethnogastronomy research into domestic health care strategies for improving community health.