Rosemarinic acid for COVID-19

The SARS-CoV-2 infection continues triggering substantial distress to people since 2019. Many research investigationsconcerning viral pathogenesis regarding the manner in which the virus infects and multiplies within the host have led toconverging conclusions. Numerous studies have additionally demonstrated a strong link between ageing, mildinflammation, metabolic disorders and SARS-CoV-2 illness. According to a modest collection of knowledge, nutraceuticals arecapable of avoiding viral invasion and can reduce inflammation. Consequently, in this current work, we report a moleculardocking analysis for nutraceuticals from diverse plants against SARS-CoV-2 cysteine proteases PLpro (PDB ID: 7CJM) andRNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp, PDB ID: 6M71) which play major role in viral replication. The molecular dockingstudies showed that chicoric acid (7CJM : -8.617 Kcal/Mol, 6M71: -6.475) and rosemarinic acid (7CJM : -7.925 Kcal/Mol,6M71 : -8.323 Kcal/Mol) exhibited good docking scores with the selected targets, which were better when compared to that ofreference antiviral drugs Remdesivir and Favipiravir. The majority of the nutraceuticals assessed by Qikprop displayedbeneficial pharmacological characteristics for human administration.

COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 has impacted human livelihood globally. Strenuous efforts have been employed for its control and prevention; however, with recent reports on mutated strains with much higher infectivity, transmissibility, and ability to evade immunity developed from previous SARS-CoV-2 infections, prevention alternatives must be prepared beforehand in case. We have perused over 128 recent works (found on Google Scholar, PubMed, and ScienceDirect as of February 2023) on medicinal plants and their compounds for anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity and eventually reviewed 102 of them. The clinical application and the curative effect were reported high in China and in India. Accordingly, this review highlights the unprecedented opportunities offered by medicinal plants and their compounds, candidates as the therapeutic agent, against COVID-19 by acting as viral protein inhibitors and immunomodulator in (32 clinical trials and hundreds of in silico experiments) conjecture with modern science. Moreover, the associated foreseeable challenges for their viral outbreak management were discussed in comparison to synthetic drugs.