Olive Leaves as a Potential Phytotherapy in the Treatment of COVID-19 Disease; A Mini-Review

Abstract

Beginning from December 2019, widespread COVID-19 has caused huge financial misfortunes and exceptional wellbeing emergencies across the globe. Discovering an effective and safe drug candidate for the treatment of COVID-19 and its associated symptoms became an urgent global demand, especially due to restricted information that has been discharged with respect to vaccine efficacy and safety in humans. Reviewing the recent research, olive leaves were selected as a potential co-therapy supplement for the treatment and improvement of clinical manifestations in COVID-19 patients. Olive leaves were reported to be rich in phenolic compounds such as oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol, verbascoside, apigenin-7-O-glucoside, and luteolin-7-O-glucoside and also triterpenoids such as maslinic, ursolic, and oleanolic acids that have been reported as anti–SARS-CoV-2 metabolites in recent computational and in vitro studies. In addition, olive leaf extract was previously reported in several in vivo studies for its anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, immunomodulatory, and antithrombotic activities which are of great benefit in the control of associated inflammatory cytokine storm and disseminated intravascular coagulation in COVID-19 patients. In conclusion, the described biological activities of olive leaves alongside their biosafety, availability, and low price make them a potential candidate drug or supplement to control COVID-19 infection and are recommended for clinical investigation.