An exhaustive comprehension of the role of herbal medicines in Pre- and Post-COVID manifestations.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has relentlessly spread all over the world even after the advent of vaccines. It demands management, treatment, and prevention as well with utmost safety and effectiveness. It is well researched that herbal medicines or natural products have shown promising outcomes to strengthen immunity with antiviral potential against SARS-COV-2. AIM OF THE REVIEW: Our objective is to provide a comprehensive insight into the preventive and therapeutic effects of herbal medicines and products (Ayurvedic) for pre-and post-COVID manifestations. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The database used in the text is collected and compiled from Scopus, PubMed, Nature, Elsevier, Web of Science, bioRxiv, medRxiv, American Chemical Society, and clinicaltrials.gov up to January 2022. Articles from non-academic sources such as websites and news were also retrieved. Exploration of the studies was executed to recognize supplementary publications of research studies and systematic reviews. The keywords, such as "SARS-COV-2, coronavirus, COVID-19, herbal drugs, immunity, herbal immunomodulators, infection, herbal antiviral drugs, and WHO recommendation" were thoroughly searched. Chemical structures were drawn using the software Chemdraw Professional 15.0.0.160 (PerkinElmer Informatics, Inc.). RESULT: A plethora of literature supports that the use of herbal regimens not only strengthen immunity but can also treat SARS-COV-2 infection with minimal side effects. This review summarizes the mechanistic insights into herbal therapy engaging interferons and antibodies to boost the response against SARS-COV-2 infection, several clinical trials, and in silico studies (computational approaches) on selected natural products including, Ashwagandha, Guduchi, Yashtimadhu, Tulsi, etc. as preventive and therapeutic measures against COVID. We have also emphasized the exploitation of herbal medicine-based pharmaceutical products along with perspectives for unseen upcoming alike diseases. CONCLUSION: According to the current state of art and cutting-edge research on herbal medicines have showed a significant promise as modern COVID tools. Since vaccination cannot be purported as a long-term cure for viral infections, herbal/natural medicines can only be considered a viable alternative to current remedies, as conceived from our collected data to unroot recurring viral infections.

An Insight into Anticancer Bioactives from Punica granatum (Pomegranate).

Cancer is one of the major reasons for mortality across the globe. Many side-effects are associated with the formulations available in the market, affecting the quality of life of the patients. This has caused the researchers to find an alternative source of medications, such as herbal medicine, showing a promising effect in anticancer treatment; one such source is Pomegranate, which belongs to the family Punicaceae. Punica granatum contains many polyphenols that have antioxidant, antidiabetic, and therapeutic effects in the treatment and management of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, as well as a favourable effect on anticancer therapy. Polyphenols like punicalin, punicalagin, and ellagic acid are a few of the many compounds responsible for the anticancer activity of pomegranate. Many preparations of pomegranate, such as Pomegranate Juice (PJ), Pomegranate Seed Oil (PSO), Pomegranate peel extract (PoPx), etc. are used in various clinical studies. These polyphenols show anticancer activity by either arresting the cell cycle in the G2/M phase, inducing apoptosis or damaging the DNA of tumor cells. This review explicitly discusses the role and mechanism of bioactives obtained from the pomegranate in the treatment and management of cancer. The chemical structure, properties, and role of pomegranate in the treatment of breast, lung, thyroid, colon, and prostate cancer have been focused on in detail. This review also discusses various targeted drug delivery approaches for tumour treatment as well as patented preparation of pomegranate compounds along with the ongoing clinical trials.