Role of Iranian Medicinal Plants in the Prevention of COVID-19

Abstract

One of the essential approaches to preventing the spread of COVID-19 is disease prevention methods. In this regard, medicinal plants are valuable. In this study the mechanisms and effects of effective medicinal plants for the prevention of COVID-19 in the Iranian pharmaceutical market were investigated. For this purpose, search terms Herbal Medicine, Phytotherapy, Traditional Medicine, Complementary Medicine, Alternative Medicine, Integrative Medicine, Prevention, SARS-CoV-2, and COVID-19 were used to retrieve relevant publications indexed in Scopus, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and PubMed until May 2021. After obtaining articles related to medicinal plants, articles that addressed plants in Iran were included in the review, then the mechanisms of their actions in the prevention of COVID-19 were investigated. According to the extracted studies, plants such as Zataria multiflora Boiss., Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, Echinacea spp., Aloe vera (L.) Burm.f, Nigella sativa, eucalyptus spp., Cichorium intybus L., Syzygium aromaticum (L.), Glycyrrhiza glabra L., Allium sativum L., and Crocus sativus L. are effective in preventing COVID-19, which are found in the domestic market of Iran. These plants seem to effectively prevent COVID-19 with three fundamental mechanisms: anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, immunomodulatory effects, and inhibiting virus attachment to the host cell.

Keywords

• herbal medicine
• phytotherapy
• covid-19
• prevention
• sars-cov-2