Role of botanical essential oils as a therapy for controlling coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) disease (Covid-19)

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VIII, Issue IV, April 2021 | ISSN 2321–2705

 Role of botanical essential oils as a therapy for controlling coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) disease (Covid-19)

Ravindra B. Malabadi^*1, Kiran P. Kolkar², Neelambika T. Meti³, Raju K. Chalannavar^*1
1*Department of Applied Botany, Mangalore University, Mangalagangotri-574199, Mangalore, Karnataka State, India
²Department of Botany, Karnatak Science College, Dharwad, Karnataka state, India
³Plant Biotechnology Laboratory, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of IT and Biotechnology, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune-Satara Road, Katraj, Pune – 411046, Maharashtra State, India
*Corresponding author

Abstract: – This review paper presented on the basis of extensive literature survey updated the importance of plant essential oils in controlling many diseases, particularly coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) disease outbreak. Plant essential oils are valuable natural products, and used as a raw materials in aromatherapy, phytotherapy, perfumery, cosmetics, spices and nutrition. Aromatic plants produced a diversity of chemical constituents with the potential to inhibit viral replication. Essential oils have several biological properties such as antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, wound-healing and anti-cancer effects in in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, essential oils have been analyzed and described as good antiviral agents against respiratory tract viral infections, hence are excellent prospective candidate against coronavirus. Thus, essential oils and their constituents can hopefully be considered in near future for more clinical assessment and possible applications in controlling the coronavirus pandemic. However, some of the plant essential oils are very toxic and poisonous and therefore, oral consumption should be avoided. Further detailed clinical trial experiments should be conducted for the scientific validation.

Key words: Antiviral, aromatherapathy, coronavirus, essential oils, herbal medicine, oil therapy, toxicity,

I. INTRODUCTION

The global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease (covid-19) is an ongoing pandemic and a public gravest health emergency (Malabadi et al., 2021a, 2021b). The SARS-CoV-2 is a new strain of coronavirus that appeared in China in December 2019, and the viral disease is named as covid-19 (Zhang et al., 2020a, 2020b, 2020c; Zheng et al., 2009; Zhou et al., 2020a, 2020b; Zhu et al., 2020). SARS-CoV-2 is a beta-coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic (Shin et al., 2020; Yang, 2021; Xu et al., 2020; Malabadi et al., 2021a, 2021b). Symptoms of COVID-19 can be relatively non-specific and infected people may be asymptomatic (Shin et al., 2020; Yang, 2021).

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