The Role of Natural Products in COVID-19
Iqra Akhtar, Sumera Javad, Tehreema Iftikhar, Amina Tariq, Hammad Majeed, Asma Hayati Ahmad, Muhammad Arfan, M. Zia-Ul-Haq
Abstract
Antiviral treatment for COVID-19 is need of the hour along with development of vaccine. A lot of work is being carried out since December 2019, to treat this infectious disease but still with no results. Nature is full of such marvelous treasure of chemicals, which has a number of hidden characteristics, and we need to explore those for their biological activities. A lot of work was done on natural products and their effects on SARS CoV when the world came across the infection in 2003. Coronavirus causing SARS CoV-2 (also known as SARS COVID-19) has pretty much genomic resemblance with the SARS CoV. Therefore, it is believed that herbal treatments which were valid for SARS CoV may be equally effective against SARS CoV-2. Therefore, a thorough study has been done to review the antiviral activities of plants and their phytochemicals, particularly against coronaviruses (CoVs).