Review of antiviral and immunomodulatory effects of herbal medicine with reference to pandemic COVID-19

La pandemia producida por el virus SARS-CoV-2 es el gran enigma que enfrenta la salud global debido a su rapida ex- pansion, ante este escenario, la fitoterapia ha demostrado desde tiempos inmemorables su importancia en el aporte de innovaciones terapeuticas En este contexto, se efectuo una revision de las referencias bibliograficas oficiales del pais, cruzandolas con la base de datos Natural medicine del Insti- tuto Karolinska, obteniendo 25 plantas medicinales con efec- to antiviral e inmunomodulador Luego se utilizo tres bases de datos: Scopus, Google academico y BVS-MTCI, los que me- diante un screening focalizado en ambos efectos para virus ARN, quedaron 79 articulos, correspondientes a 14 plantas medicinales;de ellas 7 presentaron efectos anti-coronavirus: Sambucus nigra, Chinaca purpurea, Astragalus membra- naceus, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Eucaliptus globulus, Aloe vera, y Camellia sinensis;estas tres ultimas, ademas, poseen un potencial efecto contra SARS-CoV-2, por lo que se propone profundizar en el estudio terapeutico de las mismas The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is the great- est issue facing global health due to its rapid expansion Given this scenario, the phytotherapy has demonstrated its importance since time immemorial providing therapeutic in- novations In this context, a review of the official bibliographic references of the country was carried out, crossing them with the Natural medicine database of the Karolinska Institute, ob- taining 25 medicinal plants with antiviral and immunomodu- latory effects Then, three databases were used: Scopus, Google Scholar and BVS-MTCI, which through a focused screening in both effects for RNA viruses, it was left 79 ar- ticles, corresponding to 14 medicinal plants;of these plants, 7 presented anti-coronavirus effects: Sambucus nigra, Echi- nacea purpurea, Astragalus membranaceus, Glycyrrhiza gla- bra, Eucalyptus globulus, Aloe vera, and Camellia sinensis;the last three from these, in addition, have a potential effect against SARS-CoV-2, and for this reason, an in-depth study of their therapeutic properties is proposed