Ayurveda and Siddha medicines like Kabasura Kudineer tablets, Chyawanprash and others have helped inhibit the SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, a German study has found.
The study claimed that several classical Siddha formulations, along with other Ayurveda medicines can impede the SARS-CoV-2 virus from interacting with the ACE-2 receptors of human or host cells.
Speaking at a press conference organised by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living on Monday, Dr Christian Garbe, managing director, Frankfurt Innovation Center for Biotechnology (FIZ), stated that Kabasura Kudineer tablets had shown 84% efficacy as an inhibitor of spike glycoprotein in the coronavirus strains, in restricting entry of the virus into cells in in-vitro studies.
He added that Amruth and Immugen had similar inhibitory effects, at 60-65% and 80%, respectively. “This shows a strong reduction of binding with higher concentration,” he said.
Meanwhile, a third Ayurveda compound, Chyawanprash showed the same inhibition level between 70-75% with whatever concentrations were tested.
Other clinical studies
Arvind Varchaswi, managing director, Sri Sri Tattva, pointed to other clinical studies being undertaken at the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) to evaluate the role of herbal immunomodulators as an add on treatment in asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic Covid-19 cases.
“This was conducted in 40 subjects, of which 19 were male and 21 were female. Sri Sri Tattva immunity products, a combination of a single herb and a polyherbal formulation, namely Shakti drops, Amrut tablets, turmeric plus tablets and tulsi arka drops were administered to assess the clinical features and also immune markers,” Varchaswi explained.
A second study attempted to evaluate the immune-modulating properties of herbal medicines among 96 medicos working in Covid-19 wards. All 96 subjects were said to have received either standard of care protocol or herbal medicines with SOC in the ratio of 1:1 for a period of 14 days. Antioxidant and immune markers were investigated.
Dr C R Jayanthi, director, BMCRI said the results showed significant improvement of clinical and laboratory parameters like immunity markers and antioxidant markers after 14 days of treatment with the Sri Sri Tattva immunity products along with standard of care. Further studies can be planned to establish the efficacy, she added.
Varchaswi said the results are under review and will be published soon.