EAS Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology Abbreviated Key Title: EAS J Pharm Pharmacol ISSN: 2663-0990 (Print) & ISSN: 2663-6719 (Online) Published By East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya Volume-5 | Issue-2 | Mar-Apr- 2023 | DOI: 10.36349/easjpp.2023.v05i02.001 *Corresponding Author: Abdullateef A. Raji 14 Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Federal University of Kashere, Gombe State, Nigeria Original Research Article Efficacy of Herbal Medicines as Remedies against COVID-19 Abdullateef A. Raji 1* , Ruqayyah Abdullateef 2 , Raliat A. Aladodo 3 , Muhammed M. Abdul- Lateef 4 , Hassanat T. Jimoh 2 1 Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Federal University of Kashere, Gombe State, Nigeria 2 Department of Plant Biology, SINWAN Agricultural Research & Development Institute, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria 3 Department of Medical Biochemistry & Pharmacology, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Kwara State University Malete, Kwara State, Nigeria 4 Department of Industrial Chemistry, SINWAN Agricultural Research & Development Institute, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria Article History Received: 15.07.2020 Accepted: 28.08.2020 Published: 03.03.2023 Journal homepage: https://www.easpublisher.com Quick Response Code Abstract: Objective: Coronaviruses belong to the order Nidovirales, family Coronaviridae, and four genera, namely: alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. In December 2019, a novel coronavirus was first officially reported in Wuhan City of China. Consequently, on February 11, 2020, the CSG named the virus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); it causes the disease dubbed Covid-19. The virus was officially declared pandemic by WHO, on March 11, 2020. Up till date, no drug, including the existing ones, has been approved for covid-19 treatment. The objective of this work, is to carry out a review on proven herbal extracts and the phyto-compound contents, for possible antiviral properties against SARS-CoV-2, and thus, as potential candidates for Covid-19 vaccine. Materials and Methods: Investigation into proven plant species against respiratory tract diseases was carried out between 1 st to 30 th of July, 2020 via: (a) Conduction of interview with traditional herbal healers and users, in south-western Nigeria on efficacies and history of use of identified plant species; (b) Search to confirm active phyto-compounds in the traditionally identified plant species via: (i). the free ELSEVIER repositories at the ‗COVID- 19 RESOURCE CENTRE‘ hosted on ELSEVIER Connect. (ii). Unrestricted resources in the PubMed domain. (iii). Unrestricted publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID-19 database. Results: Findings revealed herbal extracts of: (i). Zingiber officinale, (ii). Psidium guayava, (iii). Nigella sativa, and (iv). Hibiscus sabdariffa; are highly rich in phyto-compounds with potent antiviral properties, and therefore suit as a potential remedy against Covid-19. Conclusion: Identified plant species possess phyto-compounds with antiviral activities, thus projecting them as potential candidates for development of Covi-19 vaccine. Keywords: Herbal Medicine, Phyto-compounds, Antiviral properties, SARS- CoV-2, Coronaviruses, Covid-19, Vaccines. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s): This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial use provided the original author and source are credited. INTRODUCTION Coronaviruses are a large group of viruses belonging to the order Nidovirales, family Coronaviridae, and four genera, namely: alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. They possess envelopes and are single-stranded Ribonucleic acid (RNA) [1]. Studies revealed they constitute the largest known RNA viruses, with genomes ranging from 25 to 32 kb [2]. Coronaviruses are associated with acute respiratory diseases; they are known to infect respiratory tracts in animals and humans [3]. Over the time, these viruses have been reported to be pandemic, causing deadly diseases at a global scale, examples include: severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS- CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV) [4], etc. Recently, in December, 2019, a novel coronavirus was first officially reported in Wuhan City of China. Studies on the new virus revealed it belongs to the coronaviridae family, according to the Coronaviridae Study Group (CSG), which is the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Consequently, on February 11, 2020, the CSG named the virus ―severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).‖ The nomenclature was