key: cord-0793507-7g80czh8
authors: Orisakwe, Orish E.; Orish, Chinna N.; Nwanaforo, Eudora O.
title: Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) and Africa: acclaimed home remedies
date: 2020-11-02
journal: Sci Afr
DOI: 10.1016/j.sciaf.2020.e00620
sha: 89ccaf795ce34393b7b44f3016dac090c412c31d
doc_id: 793507
cord_uid: 7g80czh8

At last the WHO declared the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) now known as COVID-19 a pandemic. Amidst uncertainty both in the pathophysiology and the management of COVID-19, many African countries in the face of either over-stretched or non-existent healthcare infrastructure resorted to home remedies as immediate alternative or first line of action. The present study is a synoptic capture of these home remedies with an attempt to understand the pharmacological basis on which these choices are predicated. Literature was compiled from google, social media, Radio and Television commentaries and news with stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria. Natural spices (turmeric, ginger, garlic etc) and leaves (neem, paw paw, guava, etc) with notable antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties were found to be beneficial. These home remedies may hold promise in the prophylaxis and cure of COVID-19 infection.

Introduction: Coronaviruses (family Coronaviridae and subfamily Orthocoronaviridae) are nonsegmented positive-sense RNA viruses or (+) ssRNA virus) which are distributed in humans (Richman et al 2016) . COVID19 uses positive sense single stranded RNA as its genetic material.

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 which took its root in Wuhan, China in December 2019 is caused by the corona virus that can spread between animals and humans. COVID-19 is a present crisis whose clinical and epidemiological characteristics are currently being documented (Wu et al 2019 , Guan et al 2020 .

Hitherto, the primary source of infection remain pneumonia patients infected with COVID-19.

Transmission of respiratory droplets is the main transmission route, which can also be transmitted by contact (General Office of National Health Committee, 2020). The most common symptoms of Coronavirus disease COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and dry cough. It may be accompanied by aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea in some people. At the moment, effective treatments modalities that target the coronavirus remain elusive and largely unknown. The therapeutic regimens and treatment modalities may require a while to be realised. This gap in knowledge and the quest for immediate credible solution has compelled governments and scientists to search for anti-COVID-19 remedies. Panicky developing nations including Africa in the phase of this wide spread and the predicted humanity and economic disasters resorted to home treatment of contacts and COVID-19 cases.

In Africa, the orientation has skewed towards exploring natural spices and natural compounds (Chen and Nakamura 2004) . It has been reported that traditional remedies may alleviate the symptoms of COVID-19. This is a synoptic capture of acclaimed home remedies with proven efficacy employed in various countries of Africa within the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology: Information from google, newspapers, magazines, different social media namely: facebook, twitter, whatsapp, testimonies of survivors through radios and televisions were gathered from February-May 2020. Sources that emphasised hospital treatment with orthodox medicines were excluded. Claims without dates and verifiable locations and identities were also excluded. Suspected postings by herbalists and traditional medical practitioners TMPs which could be viewed as promotional adverts were excluded. Socioeconomic status (education, employment etc) of all claimants were also recorded. Table 1 Senegal mahogany, is a species of plant in the family Meliaceae. Opuntia dillenii, a well-known member of the Cactaceae family, is used as a medicinal plant in various countries and grows in the desert, semi-desert, tropical and sub-tropical areas. Bird pepper or Capsicum frutescens (also called Ata Ijosin in Yoruba) is a tropical solanaceous plant. Turmeric root is a bright yelloworange spice commonly used in curries and sauces. Ginger is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice. Garlic is a plant in the Allium (onion) family.

The lemon is citrus like and a specie of small evergreen tree in the flowering plant family Rutaceae. Paw-paw, Asimina triloba, is a small deciduous tree. Other remedies include unripe pineapple and blackseed oil, black pepper, mango and guava leaves. The aqueous decoctions of these remedies especially the leaves were either taken orally or by steam inhalation. Since most of the home remedies are classified as 'generally regarded as safe' GRAS and in fact already used as food, dosing was not problematic. Generally, one teaspoonful of the powdered spices in 240-250 ml of warm water to be taken three times a day constituted daily routine throughout the period of treatment.

About three months after it was officially recognised as a pandemic, the spread of the COVID-19 virus has continued, that urgent strong remedy is required, notwithstanding the paucity of have also supported the use of these home remedies as anti-COVID agents. In Madagascar a combination of artemisia, neem leaves, paw paw leaves, garlic, ginger, lime and oranges has been adopted as a notable anti-COVID agent. This combination is boiled for 30 minutes and steam-inhaled. Expectedly the steam inhalation clears the lungs of the virus. In fact, the Madagascar Institute of Applied Research has branded this decoction which can be also be taken orally as Covid-19 Organics CVO. Similar decoctions have been used in Nigeria and even by Nigerians who live in the diaspora. At inception COVID-19 was thought to be a lung disease but later evidence from autopsy reports tended to implicate Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC, Thrombosis). Regardless of the pathology, the African home remedies with their inherent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties may explain at least in part, the acclaimed protection, remission in symptoms, seroconversion and cure of COVID-19 in many parts of Africa. 

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OEO &CNO conceptualization, reviewed the draft manuscript and certified final manuscript.EON conducted the search, data extraction, drafting of manuscript.

This work received no funding. No funding is available for open access publications from our institution or other sources.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

☒ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.☐The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Orish Ebere ORISAKWE (Corresponding Author)