MARJĀN (CORAL) FOR CONTAINMENT OF COVID-19 IN UNANI MEDICINE

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has been propagating with high amplitude and paralyzing the healthcare system with powerful tentacles. Nonavailability of specific drug against the Corona virus disease-19 turned the world attention towards finding ways to strengthen the host defense, the most effective measure of containment of spread of pandemic. Coral has potential to be used as an immunomodulator for this purpose. This article is aimed to provide an overview of prophylactic role of coral in relevance with current pandemic. A manual literature survey of classical Unani texts was conducted to collect the information on Marjān (coral). In addition, electronic databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar and Science Direct were searched to identify researches conducted on Coral as well as to obtain recent information about COVID-19 outbreak. The keywords used were “Marjān”, “Coral”, “Containment”, “COVID-19”, and “Unani Medicine”. The literature review shows that Unani philosophers have emphasized the role of coral as source of calcium in enhancing the immunity of the host linking their action on vital organ. Marjān (coral) as described in classical Unani text seems to be much relevant in today's context. Arguably calcium is the most important mineral in enhancing the immunity to strengthen the host defense. Hence it is our opinion; it is worth assessing this animal origin drug may be used as prophylactic agent in current outbreak.