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Chinese herbal injections for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A narrative review
Xiao-Bin Zhu1, Meng Guo1, Zhi-Hui Zhang2,3
1Department of Pharmacy, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Insights
Chinese herbal injections show promise in treating COVID-19 by improving outcomes and reducing inflammation. However, further research is needed to confirm efficacy and safety, especially regarding potential adverse events.
Area of Science:
- Integrative Medicine
- Pharmacology
- Infectious Diseases
Background:
- The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant global mortality and morbidity.
- Emerging evidence suggests Chinese herbal injections may offer synergistic benefits in managing this respiratory illness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review and analyze the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal injections for COVID-19 treatment.
- To summarize current clinical evidence on their therapeutic potential.
Main Methods:
- Literature search across PubMed, CNKI, and Web of Science databases.
- Keywords included "COVID-19", "SARS-CoV-2", "traditional Chinese medicine", "herb", "herbal", and "injection".
- Comprehensive evaluation of identified articles.
Main Results:
- Chinese herbal injections may improve clinical outcomes, particularly when combined with conventional treatments.
- Benefits include symptom relief, prevention of secondary infections, and immune regulation.
- In vitro studies indicate potential SARS-CoV-2 replication inhibition, but real-world data suggest possible adverse events.
Conclusions:
- Specific Chinese herbal injections like XueBiJing and ShenMai show potent effects against COVID-19.
- Further rigorous laboratory and clinical studies are essential to validate their efficacy and safety profile.
Background:
The outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused more than 180 million infections and 3.9 million deaths. To date, emerging clinical evidence has shown the synergetic benefits of Chinese herbal injections in treating this contagious respiratory disease. This review aims to summarize and analyze the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal injections in the therapy of COVID-19.
Methods:
The literature from 3 electronic databases, PubMed, CNKI, and Web of Science, were searched using the search terms "COVID-19", "SARS-CoV-2", "traditional Chinese medicine", "herb", "herbal", and "injection". Then the identified articles were comprehensively evaluated.
Results:
Limited data demonstrated that Chinese herbal injections could significantly improve the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients, especially in combination with conventional treatment strategies. The benefits of which were mainly associated with the relief of symptoms, prevention of secondary infection, regulation of inflammation and immune function. There was also evidence showing the inhibitory effects on SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro. Nevertheless, available real-world data suggested the increased risk of adverse event. Furthermore, the defects of existing researches and the insights for discovering novel antiviral drugs were prospectively discussed.
Conclusion:
Evidence-based advances revealed that Chinese herbal injections such as XueBiJing injection and ShenMai injection, exerted potent effects against COVID-19. Further laboratory researches and clinical evaluation are needed to gather scientific evidence on the efficacy and safety.
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