Are Indian Culinary Spices Acting as an Immunomodulatory Factor Against COVID-19?

Sushmita Das¹ and Pratap Jyoti Handique^2*

¹Life Science Division, Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology, Guwahati, Assam, India.

²Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam, India.

Corresponding Author Email: drpjh@rediffmail.com

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus- 2 (SARS-CoV-2) due to its rapid community transmission and absence of an effective antiviral drug has caused a high morbidity and mortality in human lives world over. According to the WHO Situation Report No. 102 as on January 12, 2022, India recorded 35.87 million confirmed cases of COVID 19 with a death rate of 1.34 %, the total death being 0.48 million, in comparison to the global death rate of 1.78%. The host-pathogen interactions are important to understand an infectious disease and to follow specific treatment for cure and measures for prevention. Various factors involved in disease emergence with interplay between pathogens, hosts and environment changes the disease ecology creating novel transmission patterns and severity. Indian conventional foods and culinary spices contain a number of active principles, including polysaccharides, terpenoids, alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, and essential oils, which act as immunomodulators and have tremendous capability to maintain and/or stimulate the immune system primarily through the modulation of nonspecific immune responses. This review highlights the bioactive components of some of the most commonly used Indian culinary spices grounding a new dimension of research on these natural phytoproducts to bring out their functional and medicinal values vis-à-vis improvement of human health. In conclusion, the structure of bioactive molecules present in the Indian dietary spices may pave way for the development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

COVID-19; Immunomodulator; India; Spices

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