The whole world is still challenged with COVID-19 pandemic caused by Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) which has affected millions of individuals around the globe. Although there are prophylactic vaccines being used, till now, there is ongoing research into discovery of drug candidates for total eradication of all types of coronaviruses. In this context, this study sought to investigate the inhibitory effects of six selected tropical plants against four pathogenic proteins of Coronavirus-2. The medicinal plants used in this study were selected based on their traditional applications in herbal medicine to treat COVID-19 and related symptoms. The biological activities (antioxidant, free radical scavenging, and anti-inflammatory activities) of the extracts of the plants were assessed using different standard procedures. The phytochemicals present in the extracts were identified using GCMS and further screened via in silico molecular docking. The data from this study demonstrated that the phytochemicals of the selected tropical medicinal plants displayed substantial binding affinity to the binding pockets of the four main pathogenic proteins of Coronavirus-2 indicating them as putative inhibitors of Coronavirus-2 and as potential anti-coronavirus drug candidates. The reaction between these phytocompounds and proteins of Coronavirus-2 could alter the pathophysiology of COVID-19, thus mitigating its pathogenic reactions/activities. In conclusion, phytocompounds of these plants exhibited promising binding efficiency with target proteins of SARS-COV-2. Nevertheless, in vitro and in vivo studies are important to potentiate these findings. Other drug techniques or models are vital to elucidate their compatibility and usage as adjuvants in vaccine development against the highly contagious COVID-19 infection.
This study evaluated the spectroscopic and anti-inflammatory properties of the ethanol leaf extract of Milicia excelsa and fractions. The anti-inflammatory activities of the extract and various organic fractions were investigated using bovine erythrocyte membrane stabilizing assay. Ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) and Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) methods were used to detect the characteristic peak values and their functional groups. The results showed that the crude extract and ethyl acetate fraction showed minimum percentage inhibitions of 0.88 ± 0.30 and 72.05 ± 0.45% and maximum percentage inhibitions of 81.66 ± 0.23% and 99.07 ± 0.30% respectively compared to the standard antiinflammatory drug (Indomethacin) which exhibited minimum and maximum percentage inhibitions of 52.64 ± 0.83 and 75.51 ± 1.52% respectively. The UV-VIS profile showed the peaks ranging from 270 to 670 nm with the absorption values from 0.040 -0.720 which could confirm the presence of aromatic compounds, alkaloids, flavonoids, unsaturated conjugated compounds in the plant. In addition, the FT-IR revealed diagnostic peaks around 3570-
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