Traditional Medicines and Dietary Therapy in COVID-19: Exclusive Analysis and Prospects

ABSTRACT

• The international committee on taxonomy of viruses declared the "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2" (SARS-CoV-2) as the new virus which has quickly transmitted from human to human and speed expeditiously across the globe causing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. • At present, COVID-19 is treated using chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, etc,; however, these drugs have demonstrated inadequate clinical response while causing serious adverse effects. This facilitates the study of inhibition of COVID-19 protease by traditional herbal plants and dietary therapy. • India has always been a rich reservoir of medicinal plants because of several agro-climatic zones. Indian herbal plants such as harsingar (night jasmine or parijat), giloy (moonseed plant or guduchi) and aloe vera (ghrit kumari) are particularly interesting in terms of their inhibition potentials. Chinese Herbal medicines (CHM) has been recommended and included in the interim guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19 as Chinese medicine is on the mainstream health care system in China. • The key functional food plants with immunomodulatory and antiviral; antibacterial; antifungal; anti-inflammatory; antioxidant; anticancer activity included liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra L.), garlic (Allium sativum L.), tea (Camellia sinensis [L.] Kuntez), ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe), turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) pomegranate (Punica granatum L.), black pepper (Pipper nigram L.) etc. • The present study explores the scientific data to provide exclusive analysis and establish the prospects of traditional medicine (TM) and dietary therapy (DT) in treatment and prevention of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.