One of the most important and upcoming research is to find out anti covid 19 plant and plant products. Some people believe that Jack fruit seeds, citrus, consumption of tomato,cucumber may help fighting against covid .
1. How far it is scientifically true ? if any findings kindly share - it can save life.
2. What are the exact benefit from lock down due to covid on Environment from atmosphere, plant to animal kingdom, is it quantified ?
The results are regarding enhancement of immunity against COVID-19, but no good quality studies available to refute or accept the use of different plants, their juice, or extract in the management of COVID-19.
Remember, till today, there is no definitive treatment of COVID-19. That is why the whole world is eagerly and anxiously waiting for positive news from phae 3 studies on SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
See this web site
https://www.afro.who.int/news/who-supports-scientifically-proven-traditional-medicine
As of this writing, I don’t believe there are any plants that have been shown to be effective either in preventing or treating COVID 19.
However, caring for plants at home - whether houseplants or garden plants - is an excellent activity for people who are quarantining themselves. Not only do plants keep you busy (more for outdoor than indoor plants,) but they have very positive effects on mood, health, mental and emotional stability.
Plants historically have offered a myriad of possibilities to treat human diseases. The ability of plants to cure can be traced back to 6000 years. Today, plant biotechnology also benefits from the unique advantages of plants for the expression of proteins that can be used as therapeutics, such as vaccines. So far, the plant-derived compound chloroquine phosphate, previously used against malaria, is being promoted for the treatment of COVID-19.
There are over 500 plant derived compounds that are being studied for antiviral properties, including against SARS-CoV-2. I t would take a book to described them all. I will only mention a few here. Many others can be searched on the web. First, natural quinine is plant derived, works very well as an antiparasitic, and is the drug of choice when hydroxychloroquine resistant malaria is present. But it is also antiviral, and eradicates the SARS-Cov-2 in vitro experiments. It has been used successfully anecdotally prophylactically, but there are no published double-blind placebo controlled clinical human experiments yet. Then there is resveratrol, again shown to kill SARS-Cov-2 and other coronaviruses in vitro, but not yet published in a well controlled double-blind placebo human clinical study. Nothing is accepted until this gold-standard is met. Coincidentally, resveratrol is used in its natural state (grape-crush) to treat another virus in hogs, "pseudorabies" as the usual "drug of choice." Pseudorabies virus is a candidate for the 'attenuated' carrier virus for a potential SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. The third I will mention, is the chemicals in "black tea." The extract has been shown to eradicate SARS-CoV-2 in vitro, probably due to n-methyl xanthines it contains. Again, no 'gold-standard' studies have been published on this yet. I will point out that currently these should not be considered as treatments or cures, with the information so far showing that they may have some prophylactic properties that may be found to be useful after further clinical study. This is suggested by some anecdotal information to date. There are no studies as to the dose required in the 'gold standard.' A similar statement could be made for hundreds of other plant derived antiviral chemicals. (An anecdote as to the dose question is this: 65% ethanol also kills the SARS-CoV-2; but the amount needed to kill it in a persons body would probably kill the person. So the dose is important in this discussion)
Please see the link below.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07391102.2020.1760136?needAccess=true
Extract ofMedicinal plants such as Artemisia annua may be useful for fighting against covid.
There are few research/review articles which claims the effectiveness against COVID 19. But still a far away to establish their authenticity.
Please have a look at the following link:
Preprint Plant Derived Antiviral Products for Potential Treatment of ...
Thank you all for sharing your valuable knowledge. From the information shared by you all it could be concluded that there may be some plants which may help preventing the disease. But till date it is a prediction only and still a far away to establish their authenticity.
The herbal drugs (medicinal plants) are certainly useful against most of the diseases without causing any toxic effect (or they are very less toxic). However, as far as the cure of Covid-19 is concerned, besides the use of herbal drugs,
allopathic drugs (modern medicine) must be investigated to cure/prevent Covid-19 well before high mortality or infection.
Glycyrrhizin obtained from roots of liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) may be useful for treatment of COVID-19.
Article Symptomatic Protective Action of Glycyrrhizin (Licorice) in ...
Article Glycyrrhizin: An alternative drug for the treatment of COVID...
Article Pharmacologic perspective: glycyrrhizin may be an efficaciou...
@
Many plants contain secondary metabolites that have antiviral activities. Just to name a few: Vaccinium macrocarpon, Agrimonia eupatoria, Illicium verum, Astragalus menbranaceus, Ocimum basilicum, Syzygium aromaticum, Ginkgo biloba, Zingiber afficinale, Chelidonium majus. These metabolites are known and it suffices to test them with the appropriate strain of virus.
I just found a new reference indicating that some metabolites of the common Elder Sambucus nigra has antiviral activity against one form of Human corona virus, see below
Weng JR, Lin CS, Lai HC, Lin YP, Wang CY, Tsai YC, Wu KC, Huang SH, Lin CW. Antiviral activity of Sambucus FormosanaNakai ethanol extract and related phenolic acid constituents against human coronavirus NL63. Virus Res. 2019 Nov;273:197767. doi: 10.1016/j.virusres.2019.197767. PMID 31560964