Moringa oleifera for COVID-19

Background: Gabon faced COVID-19 with more than 49,000 individuals tested positive and 307 recorded fatalities since the first reported case in 2020. A popular hypothesis is that the low rate of cases and deaths in the country was attributed to the use of medicinal plants in prevention and treatment. This study aimed to document the plants used for remedial and preventive therapies by the Gabonese population during the COVID-19 pandemic and to pinpoint specific potential plant species that merit further investigation.Methods: An ethnobotanical survey involving 97 participants was conducted in Libreville. Traditional healers and medicinal plant vendors were interviewed orally using a semi-structured questionnaire sheet, while the general population responded to an online questionnaire format. Various quantitative indexes were calculated from the collected data and included the relative frequency of citation (RFC), use value (UV), informant consensus factor (ICF), relative importance (RI), and popular therapeutic use value (POPUT). One-way ANOVA and independent samples t-test were used for statistical analyses. p-values ≤0.05 were considered significant.Results: The survey identified 63 plant species belonging to 35 families. Prevalent symptoms treated included fever (18%), cough (16%), fatigue (13%), and cold (12%). The demographic data highlighted that 52.58% of male subjects (p > 0.94) aged 31–44 years were enrolled in the survey, of which 48.45% (p < 0.0001) and 74.73% (p < 0.99) of informants had university-level education. In addition, the results indicated that a total of 66% of the informants used medicinal plants for prophylaxis (34%), for both prevention and treatment (26%), exclusively for treatment (3%), and only for prevention (3%) while suffering from COVID-19, against 34% of the participants who did not use plants for prevention or treatment. Annickia chlorantha, Citrus sp., Alstonia congensis, Zingiber officinale, and Carica papaya emerged as the most commonly cited plants with the highest RFC (0.15–0.26), UV (0.47–0.75), and RI (35.72–45.46) values. Most of these plants were used either individually or in combination with others.Conclusion: The survey reinforces the use of traditional medicine as a method to alleviate COVID-19 symptoms, thereby advocating for the utilization of medicinal plants in managing coronavirus infections.

ABSTRACT The COVID 19 pandemic is an outbreak caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with clinical manifestations of acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) which has caused a large number of deaths worldwide. The most common complications of COVID-19 are cardiovascular and kidney disorders. The urgency to develop natural medicines with natural ingredients that are effective against COVID-19 is very important to maintain body immunity and at the same time protect the body from close contact with sufferers of COVID-19. Moringa plants have the potential to increase the body's resistance (immune booster) of sufferers against SARS-CoV-2. (COVID-19) and moringa plants have other health functions such as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, antioxidant, antitumor, anticancer, antihypertensive, antiasthma, anticoagulation, antiurolithiasis, anthelmintic, antifertility, antihyperthyroid, and antialzheimer's. Several components of Moringa that play a role in the antiviral COVID-19 are Kaempferol, Pterygospermin, Morphine, Quercetin, and Apigenin-7-O-rutinoside. This Literature Review provides a basis for further research on the development of clinical applications of Moringa Oleifera for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. Keywords: Covid-19, Potential Effects, Literature Review ABSTRAK Pandemi COVID 19 adalah wabah yang disebabkan penyakit coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) dengan manisfestasi klinis sindrom pernapasan akut coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) yang menyebabkan kematian yang cukup besar di seluruh dunia. Komplikasi tersering COVID-19 adalah gangguan kardiovaskular dan ginjal. Urgensi mengembangkan pengobatan natural bahan alam yang mempunyai efektivitas terhadap COVID 19 menjadi sangat penting untuk menjaga imunitas tubuh dan sekaligus menjaga tubuh terhadap kontak erat penderita COVID 19. Tanaman kelor mempunyai potensi meningkatkan daya tahan tubuh (booster imun )penderita terhadap penyakit SARS-CoV-2 (COVID 19) dan tanaman kelor memiliki fungsi Kesehatan lainnya seperti antiradang, antimikroba, antidiabetes, antioksidan, antitumor, antikanker, antihipertensi, antiasma, antikoagulasi, antiurolitiasis, anthelmintik, antifertilitas, antihipertiroid, dan antialzheimer. Beberapa komponen kelor yang berperan pada antivirus COVID-19 adalah Kaempferol, Pterygospermin, Morfin, Quercetin, dan Apigenin-7-O-rutinoside. Tinjauan Pustaka ini memberikan dasar untuk penelitian lebih lanjut pengembangan aplikasi klinis Moringa Oleifera untuk pengobatan SARS-CoV-2. Kata Kunci: Covid-19, Efek Potensial, Tinjauan Pustaka

The SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2019) etiological agent, which has a high contagiousness and is to blame for the outbreak of acute viral pneumonia, is the cause of the respiratory disease COVID-19. The use of natural products grew as an alternative treatment for various diseases due to the abundance of organic molecules with pharmacological properties. Many pharmaceutical studies have focused on investigating compounds with therapeutic potential. Therefore, this study aimed to identify potential antiviral compounds from a popular medicinal plant called Moringa oleifera Lam. against the spike, Mpro, ACE2, and RBD targets of SARS-CoV-2. For this, we use molecular docking to identify the molecules with the greatest affinity for the targets through the orientation of the ligand with the receptor in complex. For the best results, ADME-TOX predictions were performed to evaluate the pharmacokinetic properties of the compounds using the online tool pkCSM. The results demonstrate that among the 61 molecules of M. oleifera, 22 molecules showed promising inhibition results, where the compound ellagic acid showed significant molecular affinity (−9.3 kcal.mol−1) in interaction with the spike protein. These results highlight the relevance of investigating natural compounds from M. oleifera as potential antivirals against SARS-CoV-2; however, additional studies are needed to confirm the antiviral activity of the compounds.