Possible roles of phytochemicals with bioactive properties in the prevention of and recovery from COVID-19

  1. Sachiko Koyama
  2. Paule V. Joseph
  3. Vonnie D. C. Shields
  4. Thomas Heinbockel
  5. Poonam Adhikari
  6. Rishemjit Kaur
  7. Ritesh Kumar
  8. Rafieh Alizadeh
  9. Surabhi Bhutani
  10. Orietta Calcinoni
  11. Carla Mucignat-Caretta
  12. Jingguo Chen
  13. Keiland W. Cooper
  14. Subha R. Das
  15. Paloma Rohlfs Domínguez
  16. Maria Dolors Guàrdia
  17. Maria A. Klyuchnikova
  18. Tatiana K. Laktionova
  19. Eri Mori
  20. Zeinab Namjoo
  21. Ha Nguyen
  22. Mehmet Hakan Özdener
  23. Shima Parsa
  24. Elif Özdener-Poyraz
  25. Daniel Jan Strub
  26. Farzad Taghizadeh-Hesary
  27. Rumi Ueha
  28. Vera V. Voznessenskaya

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

There have been large geographical differences in the infection and death rates of COVID-19. Foods and beverages containing high amounts of phytochemicals with bioactive properties were suggested to prevent contracting and to facilitate recovery from COVID-19. The goal of our study was to determine the correlation of the type of foods/beverages people consumed and the risk reduction of contracting COVID-19 and the recovery from COVID-19.

Methods

We developed an online survey that asked the participants whether they contracted COVID-19, their symptoms, time to recover, and their frequency of eating various types of foods/beverages. The survey was developed in 10 different languages.

Results

The participants who did not contract COVID-19 consumed vegetables, herbs/spices, and fermented foods/beverages significantly more than the participants who contracted COVID-19. Among the six countries (India/Iran/Italy/Japan/Russia/Spain) with over 100 participants and high correspondence between the location of the participants and the language of the survey, in India and Japan the people who contracted COVID-19 showed significantly shorter recovery time, and greater daily intake of vegetables, herbs/spices, and fermented foods/beverages was associated with faster recovery.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that phytochemical compounds included in the vegetables may have contributed in not only preventing contraction of COVID-19, but also accelerating their recovery.

Article activity feed

  1. Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases

    Harri Hemila

    Review 2: "Possible Roles of Phytochemicals with Bioactive Properties in the Prevention of and Recovery from COVID-19"

    Reviewers were divided on the reliability of this preprint with one reviewer rating it as strong (despite raising significant concerns) and the other expressing more detailed concerns about confounding and systematic bias in the design and analysis of the study.

  2. Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases

    Hongwei Si

    Review 1: "Possible Roles of Phytochemicals with Bioactive Properties in the Prevention of and Recovery from COVID-19"

    Reviewers were divided on the reliability of this preprint with one reviewer rating it as strong (despite raising significant concerns) and the other expressing more detailed concerns about confounding and systematic bias in the design and analysis of the study.

  4. Version published to 10.3389/fnut.2024.1408248
  5. Version published to 10.1101/2024.01.29.24301882v1 on medRxiv