Traditional Chinese medicine in antiviral treatment

Abstract

The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), which broke out in Wuhan, China in December 2019, attracted worldwide attention. With a long incubation period and strong infectiousness, COVID-19 poses a great threat to the life and health worldwide with high incidence, high pathogenicity and low sensitivity to antibiotics. At present, there are less kinds of antiviral drugs, including rimantadine hydiochloride, acyclovir, interferon, zidovudine, ribavirin, etc., which maybe lead to severe adverse reactions of the nervous system, hematopoietic system, liver and kidney system, as well as side effects such as nausea, vomiting, upper abdominal discomfort and diarrhea. Meanwhile, the development of antiviral drugs requires huge investment and time, the development of effective antiviral drugs and vaccine lags far behind the rapidly developed disease. Traditional Chinese medicine has played an important role against the infection, especially in the fight against severe acute respiratory syndrome, H1N1 influenza, H7N9 flu virus, middle east respiratory syndrome and Ebola virus infection. In this paper, the classification, mechanism, existing problems and the prospect of traditional Chinese medicine in antiviral treatment has been summarized in order to provide certain reference for the research and prescription screening of traditional Chinese medicine anti-COVID-19 drugs.