Flavonoids are natural
phytochemicals known for their
antiviral activity. The flavonoids acts at different stages of viral infection, such as viral entrance, replication and translation of proteins.
Viruses cause various
diseases such as
SARS, Hepatitis,
AIDS, Flu,
Herpes, etc. These, and many more viral diseases, are prevalent in the world, and some (i.e. SARS-CoV-2) are causing global chaos. Despite much struggle, effective
treatments for these viral diseases are not available. The flavonoid class of phytochemicals has a vast number of medicinally active compounds, many of which are studied for their potential antiviral activity against different DNA and
RNA viruses. Here, we reviewed many flavonoids that showed antiviral activities in different testing environments such as
in vitro,
in vivo (mice model) and
in silico. Some flavonoids had stronger inhibitory activities, showed no toxicity & the
cell proliferation at the tested doses are not affected. Some of the flavonoids used in the
in vivo studies also protected the tested mice prophylactically from lethal doses of virus, and effectively prevented viral infection. The
glycosides of some of the flavonoids increased the solubility of some flavonoids, and therefore showed increased antiviral activity as compared to the non-glycoside form of that flavonoid. These phytochemicals are active against different disease-causing viruses, and inhibited the viruses by targeting the viral infections at multiple stages. Some of the flavonoids showed more potent antiviral activity than the market available
drugs used to treat viral infections.