A team of researchers, including some from Worcester Polytechnic Institute found that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants.
WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers was part of a team, which included researchers from Columbia University and the University of Washington, that found that leaves of the Artemisia annua plant may represent a safe, low-cost therapeutic treatment for COVID.
“Artemisia annua has been studied extensively, and it has been used safely for more than 2,000 years in traditional medicine to treat a variety of fever-related ailments,” Weathers said. “A. annua could provide clues to new safe, cost-effective small molecule therapies or even be used as an antiviral nutraceutical.”
Researchers determined that extracts of the plant were more effective against the virus when levels of a key therapeutic compound in the plant, artemisinin, were low. The findings led researchers to believe that one or more compounds in Artemisia annua, also known as sweet wormwood, may lead to a safe, low-cost therapeutic treatment for COVID. However, researchers said they have yet to identify which compounds when combined work best.
The work was described in an article published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.
During the research, scientists soaked dried leaves from sweet woodworm in hot water and tested the solutions against COVID and the two variants originating from the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Results showed that the extracts of A. annua did not block the virus from entering cells but interfered with its ability to replicate, eventually killing it.
Weathers said more work is needed to identify the compound or combination of compounds in responsible for slowing the virus’ ability to replicate.
“These findings add to evidence emerging from other labs around the world that this plant possesses compounds that could help patients who are infected with COVID-19,” Weathers said. “We also know that the plant possesses compounds that inhibit inflammation and the formation of scar-like tissues known as fibrosis, which also affect patients with COVID-19. Together, these characteristics point to a plant that bears a lot more study.”
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Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute discover medicinal herb, sweet wormwood, may inhibit COVID fro - MassLive.com
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