Abstract

ANTI-VIRAL HERBAL MEDICINE MAY BE PREVENTIVE AGAINST CORONA VIRUS

Balbir Singh*, Pushpendra Kannojia, Rohit Kumar Bijauliya, Nikita Khare and Sushil Yadav

ABSTRACT

Viruses are one of the major hazards to humans and animals alike. They interact in the living body and redirect the metabolism of the body to produce large copies of its genomes and proteins. Coronaviruses are a group of enveloped viruses that have genomes of non-segmented, single-stranded, and positive-sense RNA. Besides infecting a number of economically significant vertebrate organisms (such as pigs and chickens), six coronaviruses are known to infect human hosts and cause respiratory diseases. Herbal extracts, plant preparations and phytoconstituents have been useful in attenuating infectious conditions and were the only treatments available before the advent of antibiotics (many of them coming from extracts). Viral diseases, in particular, remain the leading cause of death among infectious diseases in humans globally. For antiviral activity a variety of phyto-constituents derived from medicinal herbs have been extensively studied. Identifying novel antiviral drugs is therefore crucial and natural products are an excellent source of such discoveries. The aim of this study was therefore to explore plants with reported antiviral activity in order to gain a better understanding of this virus.

Keywords: Covid-19, Herbal Medicine, Anti-viral drug.