West African medicinal plants and their constituent compounds as treatments for viral infections, including SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19

Popoola, Temidayo D.; Segun, Peter A.; Ekuadzi, Edmund; Dickson, Rita A.; Awotona, Olanrewaju R.; Nahar, Lutfun; Sarker, Satyajit D.; Fatokun, Amos A.

doi:10.1007/s40199-022-00437-9

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 109 publications

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“…The same richness is also visible in a report from West Africa, where citrus fruits from West Africa containing quercetin, hesperitin, naringenin, nobiletin and tangeretin were found in silico studies to be potential inhibitors of Mpro of SARS-CoV. The sulfoxide, alliin, a natural component of fresh garlic was found to be a potential inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro (Popoola et al, 2022).…”

supporting

confidence: 69%

Editorial: Emerging and old viral diseases: Antiviral drug discovery from medicinal plants

Rahmatullah

Jahan²,

Nissapatorn³

et al. 2022

Front. Pharmacol.

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Editorial on the Research Topic Emerging and old viral diseases: Antiviral drug discovery from medicinal plants manageIt has been mentioned in a number of studies that viruses and viral diseases may have had a profound effect on human evolution, culture, and civilization. The type of viruses affecting human beings have changed with time, depending on human density and climatic conditions (de S Leal and Zanotto, 2000;Sharp and Simmond, 2011). The human genome is considered by scientists to be not only a hereditary blue-print, but also as a niche colonized by numbers of endogenous retrovirus-derived retroposons and other mobile genetic elements (de Koning et al., 2011). When and how this started remains an unanswered question, as to other questions like whether such viral interference of human genomes or viral diseases affecting humans came in distinct waves or were simply a part of gradual infiltration amidst continual interactions between viruses and humans.Irrespective of the past, recent decades have witnessed emergence of dozens of new viruses and re-emergence of old viruses, a number of them being zoonotic. Zoonotic viral diseases are transmitted from a host animal harboring the virus to humans, occasionally through a secondary host. The rise in incidences of new zoonotic viral diseases can be attributed to a number of factors including live animal markets, wildlife hunting and consumption, intensive farming of domestic animals and wildlife, and last but not the least-increases in human habitat and agricultural land, leading to massive deforestation of forests with concomitant increases in human-wildlife contacts (Wolfe et al., 2005;Magouras et al., 2020). It has also been suggested that global climate changes (due to human-caused exorbitant atmospheric increases in carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases like methane) are also causative factors behind the incidences of emerging infectious diseases (

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supporting

confidence: 69%

Editorial: Emerging and old viral diseases: Antiviral drug discovery from medicinal plants

Rahmatullah

Jahan²,

Nissapatorn³

et al. 2022

Front. Pharmacol.

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“…Many people in West Africa are reported to have used some of these plants to treat COVID-19 symptoms, even though the effectiveness of such plants against COVID-19 symptoms have not been clinically tested. Most importantly, the resurgence of the COVID-19 variants shows that vaccines will have to keep getting improved to increase effectiveness (Popoola et al, 2022).…”

Section: Engaging the Tensions Between Western And African Approaches...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What remains puzzling and intriguing is the extent to which Africa had better recovery rates during the COVID-19 pandemic despite negative predictions by scientists. Despite Africa’s notoriously poorly funded, corruption ridden, and overstretched health care systems, poor sanitation and housing, fewer people died of COVID-19 in Africa compared to Americas, Asia, and Europe (Popoola et al, 2022). For instance, by 27 June 2021, the Americas had record 73, 1 million COVID-19 cases (with 1, 9 deaths), Europe had experienced 47, 8 million cases (with more than 1 million deaths), while in Asia, there were 55, 4 million COVID-19 cases (with 784, 965 deaths).…”

Section: Engaging the Tensions Between Western And African Approaches...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Embracing African Traditional Knowledge Health Systems in a HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 Pandemic Era

Saruchera,

Xaba

2023

Journal of Black Studies

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This article engages the perpetual denigration of African Traditional Knowledge System (ATKS) by African governments in favor of western biomedical approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic. We demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic has once again put the spotlight on the alternative approaches to health and the need for a holistic and broader understanding of these practices in Africa. Using a literature review on health sectors across Africa and cases of traditional health medicines and use in selected countries, we show the Afro cosmo vision and understanding of health, and we make a case for a non-western health approach that is holistic, endogenous, and community-centered. We argue that health approaches need to be anchored on proper understanding of African societies, whose approach to health encompasses the spiritual, emotional, and physical aspect of one’s existence. Our work lends support for the importance of having a multidimensional holistic health system and approach for universal health coverage (UHC) toward the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Africa which encompasses ATKS in dealing with pandemics.

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“…Nearly 50,000 species of plants have been counted in Africa out of the 250,000 species existing throughout the world. Evidence indicates that up to 80% of the population in developing countries use herbal medicines as the primary form of healthcare [ 3 ]. This could also justify the fact that in Africa, people have always traditionally had very rich knowledge thanks to the cultural and ecological diversity of the environment in which they live [ 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnopharmacological Value and Biological Activities via Antioxidant and Anti-Protein Denaturation Activity of Morinda lucida Benth and Momordica charantia L. Leaves Extracts from Benin

Dah-Nouvlessounon

Chokki

Noumavo

et al. 2023

Plants

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Momordica charantia Linn. (Cucurbitaceae), the wild variety of bitter melon, and Morinda lucida Benth (Rubiaceae) were commonly used as a popular folk medicine in Benin. This study aimed to appreciate the ethnopharmacological knowledge and evaluate the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of M. charantia and M. lucida leaves extracts. Semi-structured surveys supported by individual interviews were conducted with herbalists and traditional healers in southern Benin. The antioxidant activities were evaluated by a micro-dilution technique using ABTS and FRAP methods. These activities were supported by cyclic voltammetry analysis. The anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by the albumin denaturation method. The volatile compounds were analysed by GC-MS analysis. All the respondents involved in this study have good knowledge of the two plants. We identify 21 diseases grouped into five categories of condition. The two plants’ extracts possess variable antioxidant capacity. Indeed, all the active extracts of M. charantia presented an IC50 < 0.078 mg/mL, while the extracts of M. lucida had an IC50 up to 0.21 ± 0.02 mg/mL. For anti-inflammatory activity, a dose-response activity (p < 0.001) was observed in the protein denaturation inhibition rate of the extracts. It should be noted that the highest inhibition rate (98.34 ± 0.12) of the albumin denaturation was observed with M. lucida dichloromethane extract. A total of 59 volatile compounds were identified by GC-MS analysis in the extracts of the two plants. The M. charantia ethyl acetate extract shows the presence of 30 different compounds with a relative abundance of 98.83%, while that of M. lucida shows 24 compounds with a relative abundance of 98.30%. These plants are potential candidates to discover new compounds with therapeutic properties that could be used to solve public health problems.

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West African medicinal plants and their constituent compounds as treatments for viral infections, including SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19

Cited by 14 publications

References 109 publications

Editorial: Emerging and old viral diseases: Antiviral drug discovery from medicinal plants

Editorial: Emerging and old viral diseases: Antiviral drug discovery from medicinal plants

Embracing African Traditional Knowledge Health Systems in a HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 Pandemic Era

Ethnopharmacological Value and Biological Activities via Antioxidant and Anti-Protein Denaturation Activity of Morinda lucida Benth and Momordica charantia L. Leaves Extracts from Benin

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