Natural Plant Products: A Less Focused Aspect for the COVID-19 Viral Outbreak

The sudden emergence of COVID-19 caused by a novel coronavirus (nCoV) led the entire world to search for relevant solutions to fight the pandemic. Although continuous trials are being conducted to develop precise vaccines and therapeutic antibodies, a potential remedy is yet to be developed. Plants have largely contributed to treat several human diseases and different phytoconstituents have been previously described to impede the replication of numerous viruses. Despite the previous positive reports of plant-based medications, no successful clinical trials of phyto-anti-COVID drugs could be conducted to date. In this article, we discuss different perspectives on why phyto-antiviral drugs could not make up to fruitful clinical trials in the case of COVID-19. The issue has been discussed in the light of the usage of the plants-based therapeutics in previous coronavirus outbreaks. Through this article, we aim to identify the lack in the research area and suggest some measures to be taken so that phytoconstituents can efficiently contribute to the future random viral outbreaks. It is emphasized that if used strategically phyto-inhibitors with pre-established clinical data for other diseases can save the time required for long clinical trials. The scientific community should competently tap into phytoconstituents and take their research up to the final stage of clinical trials so that potential phyto-anti-COVID drugs could be developed.