Audrey Tolouian
1 
, Maryam Khosravian
2 , Hedieh Ragati Haghi
3, Alireza Bolourian
4, Zahra Mojtahedi
5 , Masoumeh Asgharpour
6* , Amirhesam Alirezaei
7* 1 The University of Texas at El Paso, Texas, USA
2 Institute of Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany
3 School of Arts and Sciences, MCPHS University, 179 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA and Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02215, USA
4 College of Pharmacy, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
5 Department of Health Care Administration and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA
6 Department of Nephrology, Rouhani Hospital, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran
7 Department of Nephrology, Shahid Modarres Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by a novel coronavirus, started in livestock within the markets of Wuhan, China and was consequently spread around the world. The virus has been rapidly spread worldwide due to the outbreak. COVID-19 is the third serious coronavirus outbreak in less than 20 years after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012. The novel virus has a nucleotide identity closer to that of the SARS coronavirus than that of the MERS coronavirus. Since there is still no vaccine, the main ways to improve personal immunity against this disease are prophylactic care and self-resistance including an increased personal hygiene, a healthy lifestyle, an adequate nutritional intake, a sufficient rest, and wearing medical masks and increasing time spent in well ventilated areas. There is a need for novel antivirals that are highly efficient and economical for the management and control of viral infections when vaccines and standard therapies are absent. Herbal medicines and purified natural products have the potential to offer some measure of resistance as the development of novel antiviral drugs continues. In this review, we evaluated 41 articles related to herbal products which seemed to be effective in the prevention or treatment of COVID-19.
Implication for health policy/practice/research/medical education:
Some herbal products seemed to be effective in the prevention or treatment of COVID-19.
Please cite this paper as: Tolouian A, Khosravian M, Ragati Haghi H, Bolourian A, Mojtahedi Z, Asgharpour M. Herbal medicines in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). J Nephropharmacol. 2021;10(2):e18. DOI: 10.34172/ npj.2021.18.