Can Artemisia herba-alba Be Useful for Managing COVID-19 and Comorbidities?

Anamul Hasan,Khoshnur Jannat,Maria De Lourdes Pereira,Veeranoot Nissapatorn,Tohmina Afroze Bondhon,Tooba Mahboob,Alok K Paul,Rownak Jahan,Mohammed Rahmatullah,Partha Biswas,Tridib K Paul,Christophe Wiart,Md Nazmul Hasan,Polrat Wilairatana

doi:10.3390/molecules27020492

Abstract

The focus of this roadmap is to evaluate the possible efficacy of Artemisia herba-alba Asso. (Asteraceae) for the treatment of COVID-19 and some of its symptoms and several comorbidities using a combination of in silico (molecular docking) studies, reported ethnic uses, and pharmacological activity studies of this plant. In this exploratory study, we show that various phytochemicals from Artemisia herba-alba can be useful against COVID-19 (in silico studies) and for its associated comorbidities. COVID-19 is a new disease, so reports of any therapeutic treatments against it (traditional or conventional) are scanty. On the other hand, we demonstrate, using Artemisia herba-alba as an example, that through a proper search and identification of medicinal plant(s) and their phytochemicals identification using secondary data (published reports) on the plant’s ethnic uses, phytochemical constituents, and pharmacological activities against COVID-19 comorbidities and symptoms coupled with the use of primary data obtained from in silico (molecular docking and molecular dynamics) studies on the binding of the selected plant’s phytochemicals (such as: rutin, 4,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid, and schaftoside) with various vital components of SARS-CoV-2, it may be possible to rapidly identify plants that are suitable for further research regarding therapeutic use against COVID-19 and its associated symptoms and comorbidities.

Highlights

In the last days of December 2019, a new viral disease emerged in Wuhan, China [1]
One or two papers on the presence of artemisinin in Artemisia herba-alba do not make the plant an automatic choice, the present selection of this plant was based on consideration of other factors as well, such as ethnic uses and pharmacological activities, which were deemed to be suitable for further studies towards alleviating COVID-19 symptoms and comorbidities
COVID-19 is caused by the coronavirus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 and is the cause of the recent pandemic

Summary

Introduction

In the last days of December 2019, a new viral disease emerged in Wuhan, China [1]. The disease, which was named COVID-19, was found to be caused by a new zoonotic coronavirus of the type of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus, which had previously emerged earlier in mid-November 2002, in China [2]. The new 2019 virus was designated as SARS-CoV-2. As of 16 November 2021, COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has affected 224 countries and has caused 254,547,430 infections, resulting in 5,121,625 deaths as well as disruptions to the global economy in magnitudes that have not been seen for more than a hundred years. After almost a year of the viral emergence, several vaccines developed by different companies have obtained ‘emergency’ approvals for administration

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