On the Inhibition of COVID-19 Protease by Indian Herbal Plants: An In Silico Investigation

TL;DR

This study uses computational methods to evaluate Indian herbal compounds for their potential to inhibit COVID-19 protease, highlighting promising candidates like harsingar, aloe vera, and giloy for further research.

Contribution

It introduces an in silico approach to identify potential COVID-19 inhibitors from Indian herbal plants, providing a basis for future experimental validation.

Findings

Harsingar, aloe vera, and giloy show strong binding affinity to COVID-19 protease.

Some herbal compounds outperform hydroxychloroquine in binding affinity.

The study suggests promising herbal candidates for COVID-19 drug development.

Abstract

COVID-19 has quickly spread across the globe, becoming a pandemic. This disease has a variable impact in different countries depending on their cultural norms, mitigation efforts and health infrastructure. In India, a majority of people rely upon traditional Indian medicine to treat human maladies due to less-cost, easier availability and without any side-effect. These medicines are made by herbal plants. This study aims to assess the Indian herbal plants in the pursuit of potential COVID-19 inhibitors using in silico approaches. We have considered 18 extracted compounds of 11 different species of these plants. Our calculated lipophilicity, aqueous solubility and binding affinity of the extracted compounds suggest that the inhibition potentials in the order; harsingar > aloe vera > giloy > turmeric > neem > ashwagandha > red onion > tulsi > cannabis > black pepper. On comparing the binding affinity with hydroxychloroquine, we note that the inhibition potentials of the extracts of harsingar, aloe vera and giloy are very promising. Therefore, we believe that these findings will open further possibilities and accelerate the works towards finding an antidote for this malady.