Amazonian fruits with potential effects on COVID‐19 by inflammaging modulation: A narrative review

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic had a great impact on the mortality of older adults and, chronic non‐ transmissible diseases (CNTDs) patients, likely previous inflammaging condition that is common in these subjects. It is possible that functional foods could attenuate viral infection conditions such as SARS‐CoV‐2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), the causal agent of COVID‐19 pandemic. Previous evidence suggested that some fruits consumed by Amazonian Diet from Pre‐Colombian times could present relevant proprieties to decrease of COVID‐19 complications such as oxidative‐cytokine storm. In this narrative review we identified five potential Amazonian fruits: açai berry (Euterpe oleracea), camu‐camu (Myrciaria dubia), cocoa (Theobroma cacao), Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa), and guaraná (Paullinia cupana). Data showed that these Amazonian fruits present antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory and other immunomodulatory activities that could attenuate the impact of inflammaging states that potentially decrease the evolution of COVID‐19 complications. The evidence compiled here supports the complementary experimental and clinical studies exploring these fruits as nutritional supplement during COVID‐19 infection. Practical applications These fruits, in their natural form, are often limited to their region, or exported to other places in the form of frozen pulp or powder. But there are already some companies producing food supplements in the form of capsules, in the form of oils and even functional foods enriched with these fruits. This practice is common in Brazil and tends to expand to the international market.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on urban residents’ consumption behavior of forest food—an empirical study of 6,946 urban residents

“…Substantial research has been conducted on the impact of the pandemic on food consumption in European countries such as Italy (Di Renzo et al, 2020;Fanelli, 2021;Caso et al, 2022), Spain (Batlle-Bayer et al, 2020), Poland (Sidor and Rzymski, 2020), Turkey (Kaya et al, 2021), and in American countries like Brazil (Ferreira Rodrigues et al, 2021;Manica-Cattani et al, 2022), United States (Chenarides et al, 2021;Parekh et al, 2021), as well as Asian nations such as Qatar (Ben Hassen et al, 2020), Japan , India (Jaacks et al, 2021), Iran (Mohajeri et al, 2021) and Bangladesh (Akter et al, 2022). All these provide important basis for this paper.…”

Diet and Nutritional Factors in the Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19: An Umbrella Review

“…Two narrative reviews discussed the impact of including fresh fruits and vegetables on specific inflammatory factors related to respiratory diseases and COVID-19. 27,28 Both reviews completed systematic literature searches on key terms. One included experimental, epidemiological, and clinical data and the other did not specify data type.…”

“…One study cited a reduction in plasma levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) with regular consumption of Acai juice in subjects with metabolic syndrome. 28 Both of these reviews suggested the relationship between antioxidant content in Amazonian fruits 28 and fresh fruits and vegetables 27 and improving immune system function. However, neither study provided data directly related to COVID-19 risk or severity of symptoms.…”

Exotic fruits patents trends: An overview based on technological prospection with a focus on Amazonian

“…Therefore, the use of foods with antioxidant action and phytochemical protectors may be relevant for the prevention of diseases related to increased oxidative stress [ 27 ]. It is also noteworthy that Amazonian fruits have not only demonstrated potential in the prevention and control of chronic diseases, but also have an interesting applicability in the realm of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, responsible for the greatest health crisis in recent history of humanity [ 28 ]. The immunomodulatory, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory actions of these fruits have already been demonstrated [ 28 , 29 ].…”

“…It is also noteworthy that Amazonian fruits have not only demonstrated potential in the prevention and control of chronic diseases, but also have an interesting applicability in the realm of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, responsible for the greatest health crisis in recent history of humanity [ 28 ]. The immunomodulatory, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory actions of these fruits have already been demonstrated [ 28 , 29 ]. The potential utility of these fruits against the sequelae of infectious diseases becomes especially important in countries such as Brazil, where these diseases have great epidemiological relevance.…”