Covid-19, a global pandemic that has claimed over 2,900,000 deaths since its appearance in late 2019. It is caused by the virus SARS-CoV2, the result of the viral infection is an over reactive immunologic response by the innate and adaptive immunity. In severe Covi-19 patients the transition to ARDS is primarily due to cytokine storm, which is characterized by excessive inflammatory response and elevated serum levels of ferritin and pro-inflammatory cytokines, infiltration of neutrophils and monocytes into the lung; and reduced viral inhibiting cytokines, all of which contributes to the severity of the disease and causing death. The focus of this review is on collation of medicinal plants with strong anti-inflammatory activities which could be used alone or synergistically for enhanced therapeutic effect to cushion cytokine storm damaging effects. The plants collated evidently shows strong anti-inflammatory effects in vitro and in vivo via suppression of IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, IFN-γ, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) expression, in addition to inhibiting cyclooxygenase I and II (COX I and II), and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) activity. The medicinal plants collated in this review could be used alone or synergistically in the future in clinics for enhanced therapeutic effect to cushion cytokine storm damaging effects. Isolation of the active principle and studies of the specific mechanism of action of the plants could be the objective of future research.
Key words: COVID-19, Cytokine storm, anti-inflammatory, plants, herbs, traditional medicine
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