Ethnopharmacology and Drug Discovery for COVID-19: Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Agents from Herbal Medicines and Natural Products

This book presents a complete overview of COVID-19 and provides a series of in-depth analyses of the literature and a comprehensive discussion and perspectives on promising anti-SARS-CoV-2 agents based on the system of ethnopharmacology, which covers Chinese medicine, traditional medicines of India and Africa, Turkish folk medicine, essential oils, and some well-known medicinal plants. In this book, the current status of therapeutic strategies against COVID-19 was summarized and a perspective of potential options for the future was proposed. Based on ethnopharmacology, some well-established traditional herbal formulations and bioactive compounds with anti-virus activity were repurposed for managing COVID-19 and post-illness, including neurological disorders and kidney illness. Using drug discovery tools, promising immune enhancers were explored from phytochemicals against SARS-CoV-2. Nutraceuticals from dietary plants, spices, and fruits with anti-virus and antioxidant activities were recommended to prevent infection or severe illness caused by emerging variants. With the aid of systems pharmacology, researchers have gained insights into possible molecular mechanisms of anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity and have predicted a range of candidate compounds from medicinal plants to combat COVID-19.

Jen-Tsung Chen is a professor of cell biology at the National University of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. He also teaches genomics, proteomics, plant physiology, and plant biotechnology. Dr. Chen’s research interests include bioactive compounds, chromatography techniques, plant molecular biology, plant biotechnology, bioinformatics, and systems pharmacology. He is an active editor of academic books and journals to advance the exploration of multidisciplinary knowledge involving plant physiology, plant biotechnology, nanotechnology, ethnopharmacology, and systems biology. He serves as an editorial board member in reputed journals, including Plant Methods, GM Crops & Food, Plant Nano Biology, Biomolecules, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, and a guest editor in Frontiers in Plant Science, Frontiers in Pharmacology, Journal of Fungi, Current Pharmaceutical Design. Dr. Chen published books in collaboration with Springer Nature, CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group and he is handling book projects for some more international publishers on topics of drug discovery, nanotechnology, bioengineering, plant functional genomics, and CRISPR-based plant genome editing.