Possible Prophylactic and Therapeutic Foods for Prevention and Management of COVID-19- An Updated Review

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in an outbreak that is spreading globally. In the absence of a vaccine or effective treatment, improving the body's immune response to combat the virus, or, at least alleviate its health complications, becomes imperative. Potential prophylactic and therapeutic food interventions using black seed, garlic, honey, wasabi and high vit C foods have been proposed in various studies on previous coronaviruses, SARS-CoV and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Due to the high similarity in the three dimensional structure between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, studies that reported antiviral action of certain foods against various viruses including SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV have been discussed in this short review.