Chinese Herbal Medicine for Coronavirus 2019: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: "Eighteen randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 2275 patients were enrolled. Most of the formulas were originated from classical Chinese Herbal medicinal formulas. Liquorice Root (Gan cao, Radix Glycyrrhizae), Baical Skullcap Root (Huang qin, Radix Scutellariae Baicalensis), Pinellia Rhizome (Ban xia, Rhizoma Pinelliae Tematae), Forsythia Fruit (Lian qiao, Fructus Forsythiae Suspensae), and Bitter Apricot Seed (Ku xing ren, Semen Armeniacae Amarum) were most frequently used Chinese herbs. The most commonly used dosage formulation was decoction (tea).
Our meta-analyses found that comparing Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) group and conventional western medicine group, CHM group showed improvements in several clinical parameters including lung CT, clinical cure rate, ranging from mild to critical cases, length of hospital stay, total score of clinical symptoms, fever reduction time, symptom score of fever, number of cough reduction cases, symptom score of cough, number of fatigue reduction cases, symptom score of fatigue, fatigue elimination time, TCM diagnosed syndrome reduction, viral nucleic acid testing, and inflammatory biomarkers (C-reactive protein).
There were no severe adverse effects.
CONCLUSION: Chinese Herbal Medicinals, especially Classical Chinese Herbal Formulas, can be used to assist in the Covid 19 battle.