Potential medicinal plant-based therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2: a review of in silico, in vitro, in vivo and clinical studies

The Corona virus outbreak poses a huge threat to humankind. As such, no potential therapeutic agents or licensed vaccines are available to serve the purpose. Thus, natural plant-based drugs remained a scope for most of the countries to reduce mortality and morbidity among the community. In this review, a small attempt was made to gather the potential plant-based drugs that were used to combat targets of Sars covid 2, like the receptor of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2), spike protein, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro), papain-like protease (PLpro), helicase, and serine protease. In vitro studies and in vivo studies on various herbs and herbal products were gathered in a nutshell to review the potentiality of herbal drugs. In silico, in vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies on plant-derived products showed potential anti-SARS-CoV and anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity. Also, there is further scope for researchers and other stakeholders to further studies in terms of repurposing various traditional or herbal drug claims to combat SARS-CoV-2 and other pandemics with new therapeutic approaches.