ABSTRACT
Objective: Many studies have suggested herbal medicines as alternatives or adjuvants to modern drugs for COVID-19. Their scientometric analyses can provide a scientific overview of this topic. Materials and methods: Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus were searched for articles on the use of herbal medicines in COVID-19 published until 26 October 2020. Collected data were analyzed for document type, subject area, top journal, citation number, and authors' collaboration network using VOSviewer 1.6.15, ScientoPy 2.0.3, Gephi 0.9.2, and SPSS 15 statistical tools. Results: After screening the 3185 retrieved records, 378 and 849 records, respectively from WOS and Scopus, remained for quantity analysis. Original and review articles were the two main types of papers in both databases. Top subject areas were drug and medicine, respectively in the WOS and Scopus databases. The top three productive countries in the field were China, the US, and India. The most cited article was a practice guideline in both databases. "Journal of Biomolecular Structure Dynamics" in WOS and "Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs" in Scopus were the top journals. Top keywords included "COVID-19â³ and "Traditional Chinese Medicine". US authors had the highest collaboration with other authors. Conclusions: The current study provides a snapshot of the quantity and characteristics of published scholarly documents in recent months in the intersection of herbal medicines and COVID-19. Our findings help scientists to find the existing gaps, identify the active authors and scientific institutes to collaborate with and use their experience to produce new knowledge in the future.
ABSTRACT
Kombucha, originated in China 2000 years ago, is a sour and sweet-tasted drink, prepared traditionally through fermentation of black tea. During the fermentation of kombucha, consisting of mainly acidic compounds, microorganisms, and a tiny amount of alcohol, a biofilm called SCOBY forms. The bacteria in kombucha has been generally identified as Acetobacteraceae. Kombucha is a noteworthy source of B complex vitamins, polyphenols, and organic acids (mainly acetic acid). Nowadays, kombucha is tended to be prepared with some other plant species, which, therefore, lead to variations in its composition. Pre-clinical studies conducted on kombucha revealed that it has desired bioactivities such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, anti-hypercholestorelomic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, etc. Only a few clinical studies have been also reported. In the current review, we aimed to overhaul pre-clinical bioactivities reported on kombucha as well as its brief compositional chemistry. The literature data indicate that kombucha has valuable biological effects on human health.