INFLUENCE OF MEDICINAL AND HERBAL PLANTS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

Coronavirus-2019, known as (COVID-19), is a respiratory illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Humans did not have protective immunity to the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which made the population opt for various means of preventing and treating the disease, the most common being the use of medicinal plants and herbal medicines. To verify the influence of medicinal plants and herbal medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic. An integrative review was performed. The search for articles was carried out in the PubMed, Scielo, Lilacs databases, using the descriptors in Portuguese and English: “Medicinal Plants”, “Phytotherapy” and “Covid-19'”; “Medicinal Plants”, “Phytotherapics” and “Covid-19'” united with the Boolean operator “AND". Access to the databases was carried out from September to October 2022. 185 articles were found and after applying the Inclusion criteria left 6 articles. It was noticed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was detected that people reduced the consumption of medicinal plants, while 60.6% maintained and 27.0% increased consumption in this period. While for herbal products, there was a decrease of 16.4%, maintenance of 61.7% and an increase in use by 21.9%.The increase in use may be related to the need to keep the immune system healthy, in order to avoid contamination by the virus of SARS-COV 2.