ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Review Article | Open Access
C.T. Swamy
Department of Microbiology, Captain Srinivasa Murthy Central Ayurveda Research Institute, Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, Arignar Anna Government Hospital Campus, Arumbakkam, Chennai – 600 106, Tamil Nadu, India.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2021;15(3):1059-1071 | Article Number: 7103
https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.15.3.52 | © The Author(s). 2021
Received: 14/06/2021 | Accepted: 25/08/2021 | Published: 28/08/2021
Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 virus causes COVID-19, a pandemic disease, and it is called the novel coronavirus. It belongs to the Coronaviridae family and has been plagued the world since the end of 2019. Viral infection to the lungs causes fluid filling and breathing difficulties, which leads to pneumonia. Pneumonia progresses to ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome), in which fluid fills the air sac and seeps from the pulmonary veins. In the current scenario, several vaccines have been used to control the pandemic worldwide. Even though vaccines are available and their effectiveness is short, it may be helpful to curb the pandemic, but long-term protection is inevitable when we look for other options. Plants have diversified components such as primary and secondary metabolites. These molecules show several activities such as anti-microbial, anti-cancer, anti-helminthic. In addition, these molecules have good binding ability to the SARS-CoV-2 virus proteins such as RdRp (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase), Mpro (Main Protease), etc. Therefore, these herbal molecules could probably be used to control the COVID-19. However, pre-requisite tests, such as cytotoxicity, in vivo, and human experimental studies, are required before plant molecules can be used as potent drugs. Plant metabolites such as alkaloids, isoquinoline ß-carboline, and quinoline alkaloids such as skimmianine, quinine, cinchonine, and dictamine are present in plants and used in a traditional medicinal system.

Keywords

COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Coumarins, Plant Secondary Metabolites, Mpro

Article Metrics

Article View: 677

Share This Article

© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.