Evaluation of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 properties of essential oils and aromatic extracts

Abstract

Essential oils and aromatic extracts (oleoresins, absolutes, concretes, resinoids) are often used as food flavorings and constituents of fragrance compositions. The flavor and fragrance industry observed significant growth in the sales of some natural materials during the COVID-19 outbreak. Some companies worldwide are making false claims regarding the effectiveness of their essential oils or blends (or indirectly point toward this conclusion) against coronaviruses, even though the available data on the activity of plant materials against highly pathogenic human coronaviruses are very scarce. Our exploratory study aimed to develop pioneering knowledge and provide the first experimental results on the inhibitory properties of hundreds of flavor and fragrance materials against SARS-CoV-2 main and papain-like proteases and the antiviral potential of the most active protease inhibitors. As essential oils are volatile products, they could provide an interesting therapeutic strategy for subsidiary inhalation in the long term.

Chemical Profiling and Biological Properties of Essential Oils of Lavandula stoechas L. Collected from Three Moroccan Sites: In Vitro and In Silico Investigations

“…To gain structural insights and understand the binding mode of molecular structures and protein targets, we applied molecular docking processes that were previously described as an efficient in silico approach [ 60 ]. Various experiments revealed that EOs could contribute to preventing the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into the human body and investigated the efficacy of EO compounds in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 [ 31 , 59 , 61 , 62 , 63 ]. Da Silva et al used molecular docking analysis to determine the interaction of 171 essential oil components with SARS-CoV-2, showing that the compound with the best-normalized docking score to SARS-CoV-2 Mpro was the sesquiterpene hydrocarbon (E)-β-farnesene [ 64 ].…”

“…Molecular modeling is an interesting in silico tool used to determine the stability of compounds and the interaction types responsible for antiviral biological activity. Different EO studies revealed antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 [ 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Two different software were used: Surflex-Dock and UCSF chimera in UCSF Chimera 1.13.1 [ 32 , 33 ].…”

“…Molecular docking is used to predict how receptors interact with bioactive compounds (ligands). Several studies investigated the bioactive compounds in plants that have potential to inhibit the proliferation of viruses [ 31 , 40 , 41 ]. Moreover, a new study reported that an inhibitor of HIV protease (nelfinavir) was predicted to be COVID-19 drug candidate using molecular docking [ 42 ].…”

Wadsworth–Emmons Reaction by Using the Fluorapatite Catalyst: Kinetic Studies

“…Propolis is known to disrupt the virus corroborating and has anti-coronavirus properties . Strub et al reported the extension of the skeleton length of the cinnamic acid esters to have high inhibition activity against SARS-COV-2 …”

Investigation on the Essential Oils of the Achillea Species: From Chemical Analysis to the In Silico Uptake against SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease

“…Although the sophistication and complexity of EOs are undesirable properties for drug discovery, they are valuable in medical therapy and may be used as promising sources of novel drugs. Extracted compounds from EOs may be useful options against COVID-19, according to a recent study in which some signs of the inhibitory potential of EO constituents against the SARS-CoV-2 main protease have been highlighted [ 37 ].…”