South Korean researchers have demonstrated that ingredients from two popular Korean plants show promise for treating COVID-19. The researchers published their findings in separate reports in the October online edition of the journal Antiviral Research and in the November issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. The herbs, Codonopsis lanceolata and Aster koraiensis, are widely used in South Korean cuisine and medicine.
A research team led by C. Justin Lee, director of the Life Sciences Research Cluster at the Institute of Basic Sciences (IBS) in South Korea, found that two saponins—naturally occurring compounds known to have anti-viral activity—in the two plants could inhibit both the COVID-19 virus and its variants.
