Phytochemicals against COVID-19 and a gap in clinical investigations: An outlook

Abstract

The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has presented an unexpected pandemic that has triggered severe panic among people worldwide. In this direction, nations are maximizing their efforts to battle the disease and lower illness. Plants that produce numerous bioactive compounds might help develop and keep immunity against chronic diseases and COVID-19. Medicinal plant-based treatments are trendy in rural and tribal communities, mainly as an outcome of the increased scalability, which causes them to be cheaper and affordable compared to present-day medication. Furthermore, additional research on the antiviral possibility of healing plants shown that plant extracts with incredibly energetic secondary metabolites are competent to interrupt the replication of numerous very pathogenic viruses. But the testing and clinical trials take a very long time. This review discusses the gap in clinical studies with available phytochemicals and the possible ways to cover the same.