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

Sachiko Koyama; Paule V Joseph; Vonnie D C Shields; Thomas Heinbockel; Poonam Adhikari; Rishemjit Kaur; Ritesh Kumar; Rafieh Alizadeh; Surabhi Bhutani; Orietta Calcinoni; Carla Mucignat-Caretta; Jingguo Chen; Keiland W Cooper; Subha R Das; Paloma Rohlfs Domínguez; Maria Dolors Guàrdia; Maria A Klyuchnikova; Tatiana K Laktionova; Eri Mori; Zeinab Namjoo; Ha Nguyen; Mehmet Hakan Özdener; Shima Parsa; Elif Özdener-Poyraz; Daniel Jan Strub; Farzad Taghizadeh-Hesary; Rumi Ueha; Vera V Voznessenskaya

doi:10.3389/fnut.2024.1408248

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

Front Nutr. 2024 Jul 10:11:1408248. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1408248. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Sachiko Koyama^#¹, Paule V Joseph^#², Vonnie D C Shields^#³, Thomas Heinbockel^#⁴, Poonam Adhikari⁵, Rishemjit Kaur⁶, Ritesh Kumar⁶, Rafieh Alizadeh⁷, Surabhi Bhutani⁸, Orietta Calcinoni⁹, Carla Mucignat-Caretta¹⁰, Jingguo Chen¹¹, Keiland W Cooper¹², Subha R Das¹³, Paloma Rohlfs Domínguez¹⁴, Maria Dolors Guàrdia¹⁵, Maria A Klyuchnikova¹⁶, Tatiana K Laktionova¹⁶, Eri Mori¹⁷, Zeinab Namjoo¹⁸, Ha Nguyen¹⁹, Mehmet Hakan Özdener^#¹⁹, Shima Parsa²⁰, Elif Özdener-Poyraz²¹, Daniel Jan Strub²², Farzad Taghizadeh-Hesary⁷, Rumi Ueha^#²³, Vera V Voznessenskaya¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, United States.
² Section of Sensory Science and Metabolism and National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD, United States.
³ Department of Biological Sciences, Fisher College of Science and Mathematics, Towson University, Towson, MD, United States.
⁴ Department of Anatomy, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC, United States.
⁵ Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Rupnagar, India.
⁶ CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, Chandigarh, India.
⁷ ENT and Head and Neck Research Center and Department, The Five Senses Health Institute, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁸ School of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States.
⁹ VMPCT Private Practice, Milan, Italy.
¹⁰ Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
¹¹ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
¹² Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.
¹³ Department of Chemistry, The Center for Nucleic Acids Science & Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
¹⁴ Department of Evolutionary Psychology and Educational Psychology, Universidad del País Vasco-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Leioa, Spain.
¹⁵ Food Research Institute (IRTA), Monells, Spain.
¹⁶ Severtsov Institute of Ecology & Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
¹⁷ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
¹⁸ Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Ardabil, Iran.
¹⁹ Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
²⁰ Transplant Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
²¹ School of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Florham Park, NJ, United States.
²² Department of Chemical Biology and Bioimaging, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wrocław, Poland.
²³ Swallowing Center, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: 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.

Keywords: COVID-19; beverages; consumption habits; foods; phytochemicals; prevention; recovery.

Copyright © 2024 Koyama, Joseph, Shields, Heinbockel, Adhikari, Kaur, Kumar, Alizadeh, Bhutani, Calcinoni, Mucignat-Caretta, Chen, Cooper, Das, Rohlfs Domínguez, Guàrdia, Klyuchnikova, Laktionova, Mori, Namjoo, Nguyen, Özdener, Parsa, Özdener Poyraz, Strub, Taghizadeh-Hesary, Ueha and Voznessenskaya.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. PJ was supported by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism under award number, Z01AA000135, the National Institute of Nursing Research and the Rockefeller University Heilbrunn Nurse Scholar Award. PJ was supported by the Office of Workforce Diversity, National Institutes of Health Distinguished Scholar Program. KC was funded by NSF DGE-1839285.