Evaluation of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of medicinal and aromatic plants or products

ABSTRACT

In this study, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic process on the use of herbal products (HP) (except cosmetics and cleaning products obtained using medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP)) was evaluated. For this purpose, a survey consisting of 22 questions was conducted between January 6 and February 6, 2021. Surveys were applied using the Google Form program. The study, taking into account Turkey's seven regions, has been completed with the participation of 442 people. 10.4% of the participants stated that they started using HP with the pandemic process, and 30.4% increased the amount of use with the pandemic process. The results show that HP are mostly used to empowered immunity (42.5%) and are mostly obtained from herbalists (47%). It was observed that MAPs were mostly consumed by the participants in the form of herbal tea (31.6%) and a significant portion of the participants (37.3%) paid attention to the organic certification of the products they purchased. It was observed that the effect of age, gender, presence of children, and whether or not they had COVID-19 on the use of HP during the COVID-19 Pandemic was significant (p <0.05).