Kidney Injury, Polyherbal Therapy and "Triple Whammy": Trends in Covid-19 Pandemic

Introduction: During the recent global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, an interesting trend was observed: the combination of various herbs in the bid to prevent or even ameliorate the symptoms associated with COVID-19. Herb-drug/herb-herb interaction has been a key culprit in the etiology of progressive kidney injury. With the mounting interest in combination or polyherbal therapy to achieve therapeutic benefits for several diseases, there is a need to explore more on herb-herb and herb-drug interaction on different body systems.

This review article focused on medicinal herbs with diuretics, anti-inflammatory/analgesic, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitory (ACEI)) activities that could be associated with the etiology of the Triple Whammy Phenomenon.

Methods: Our search utilized the PUBMED and Science Direct databases and the inclusion criteria were based on the following keywords and phrases: triple whammy, herbal medicine, medicinal herbs with a diuretic, anti-inflammatory/analgesic, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitory (ACEI)) activities.

Results: Some commonly used medicinal herbs have been shown from in vivo or in vitro studies to possess diuretic, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitory, and anti-inflammatory prowess.

Conclusion: Patients who unknowingly take large quantities of these herbs and for a long duration might experience changes in intra-renal autoregulatory hemodynamics with a resultant renal dysfunction.

Keywords: Herbal medicine, acute renal dysfunction, polyherbal combinations.