Bhumika Chettri, Sekhar Sharma and Basant Kumar Rai

The global burden of viral infections including pandemic threats like SARS-CoV-2 and persistent challenges such as HIV, HSV, and influenza demands an urgent expansion of the antiviral therapeutic arsenal. Conventional antivirals, while effective, face limitations including resistance, toxicity, high cost, and limited spectrum of activity. In this context, medicinal plants emerge as a largely untapped yet evolutionarily refined reservoir of bioactive compounds with compelling antiviral potential.
This systematic review maps the bioprospecting landscape of antiviral phytochemicals, focusing on mechanistically active classes such as flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, lignans, and polyphenols. These compounds disrupt multiple stages of the viral life cycle blocking entry, inhibiting replication, impairing protein synthesis, and modulating host immune pathways offering both specificity and resilience against resistance. Case studies from Andrographis paniculata, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Curcuma longa, Phyllanthus niruri, and Camellia sinensis illustrate validated pharmacological efficacy rooted in ethnomedicine and supported by emerging in silico, in vitro, and in vivo evidence.
Beyond pharmacological insights, the review interrogates real-world barriers to phytomedicine translation, including phytochemical variability, lack of standardization, ethical tensions in bioprospecting, and intellectual property inequities. Future-forward solutions are explored ranging from AI-guided compound discovery and nanotechnology based delivery systems to regulatory innovation and transdisciplinary collaboration.
This review argues that systematic, ethical, and technologically integrated phytochemical bioprospecting is not only a scientific necessity but a strategic imperative for global antiviral preparedness in the post-pandemic era.
 

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