Flower Petals of Himalaya’s Buransh Tree Has Phytochemicals That Can Help Fight COVID-19, Say Researchers | The Weather Channel – Articles from The…

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi and The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, have identified phytochemicals in the petals of a Himalayan plant that could potentially be used to treat COVID-19 infections.

The research team's findings have been recently published in the Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics journal. The research was led by Dr Shyam Kumar Masakapalli, Associate Professor, BioX Centre, School of Basic Science, IIT Mandi, Dr Ranjan Nanda, Translational Health Group and Dr Sujatha Sunil, Vector-Borne Disease Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi.

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers are trying to understand the virus's nature and discover new ways to prevent the infection. While vaccination is one route to providing the body with fighting power against the virus, there is a worldwide search for non-vaccine medicines that can prevent viral invasion of the human body. These medicines use chemicals that either bind to the receptors in our body cells and prevent the virus from entering them or act on the virus itself and prevent its replication inside our bodies.

Masakapalli says, "Among the different types of therapeutic agents being studied, phytochemicals - chemicals derived from plants - are considered particularly promising because of their synergistic activity and natural source with fewer toxicity issues. We are hunting for promising molecules from the Himalayan flora using multi-disciplinary approaches."

The petals of the Himalayan Buransh plant, scientifically called Rhododendron Arboreum, are consumed in various forms by the local population for their varied health benefits. IIT Mandi and ICGEB set out to scientifically test the extracts containing different phytochemicals, focusing on the anti-viral activity. The researchers extracted the phytochemicals from the Buransh petals and performed biochemical assays and computational simulation studies to understand their anti-viral properties.

Ranjan Nanda says, "We have profiled and investigated the phytochemicals of Rhododendron Arboreum petals sourced from Himalayan flora and have found it to be a promising candidate against the COVID virus."

Extracts from these petals were rich in quinic acid and its derivatives. Molecular dynamics studies showed that these phytochemicals have two effects against the virus. They are bound to the main protease - an enzyme that plays a vital role in viral replication - and the Human Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme-2 (ACE2) that mediates viral entry into the host cells.

The researchers also showed through experimental assays that non-toxic doses of the petal extracts can inhibit COVID infection in Vero E6 cells (cells derived from the kidney of an African green monkey that is commonly used to study infectivity of virus and bacteria) without any adverse effects on the cells themselves.

Sujatha Sunil says, "A combination of the phytochemical profiling, computer simulations and in vitro anti-viral assays showed that the extracts from the Buransh petals inhibited the replication of the COVID virus in a dose-dependent manner."

The findings support the urgent need for further scientific studies to find specific bioactive drug candidates from R. Arboreum, in vivo and clinical trials against COVID-19. The research team also plans to carry out additional studies to understand the precise mechanism of inhibition of COVID-19 replication by specific phytochemicals from Buransh petals.

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The above article has been published from a wire source with minimal modifications to the headline and text.

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Flower Petals of Himalaya's Buransh Tree Has Phytochemicals That Can Help Fight COVID-19, Say Researchers | The Weather Channel - Articles from The...