Analysis on herbal medicines utilized for treatment of COVID-19

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a substantial global public health threat, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was used in 91.50% of the COVID-19 cases in China, showing encouraging results in improving symptom management and reducing the deterioration, mortality, and recurrence rates. A total of 166 modified herbal formulae consisting of 179 single herbal medicines were collected for treating COVID-19 in China. Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizome, Scutellariae Radix, and Armeniacae Semen Amarum are the most frequently utilized in clinics, most of which are antipyretic (47, 26.26%), expectorant and cough-suppressing (22, 12.29%), and dampness-resolving (21, 11.73%) from traditional descriptions. A total of 1212 chemical components containing β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, and quercetin were primarily selected. Additionally, using complex system entropy and unsupervised hierarchical clustering, 8 core herbal combinations and 10 new formulae emerged as potentially useful candidates for COVID-19. Finally, following scaffold analysis, self-organizing mapping (SOM) and cluster analysis, 12 clusters of molecules yielded 8 pharmacophore families of structures that were further screened as pharmacological targets in human metabolic pathways for inhibiting coronavirus. This article aims to make more easily accessible and share historical herbal knowledge used in contemporary treatments in a modern manner to assist researchers contain the global spread of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Clustering analysis; Herbal medicines; Scaffold analysis; Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).