BACKGROUND: Natural products are useful agents for the discovery of new lead-compounds and effective drugs to combat coronaviruses (CoV).

OBJECTIVE: The present work provides an overview of natural substances, plant extracts, and essential oils as potential antiSARS-CoV agents . In addition, this work evaluates their drug-like properties which are essential in the selection of compounds in order to accelerate the drug development process .

METHODS: The search was carried out using PubMed, ScienceDirect and SciFinder . Articles addressing plant-based natural products as potential SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2 agents within the last seventeen years were analyzed and selected . The descriptors for Chemometrics analyzes were obtained in alvaDesc and the principal component analyzes (PCA) were carried out in SIMCA version 13.0 .

RESULTS: Based on in vitro assays and computational analyzes, this review covers twenty nine medicinal plant species and more than 300 isolated substances as potential anti-coronavirus agents . Among them, flavonoids and terpenes were the most promising compound classes . In silico analyses of drug-like properties corroborate these findings and indicate promising candidates for in vitro and in vivo studies to validate their activity .

CONCLUSION: This paper highlights the role of ethnopharmacology in drug discovery and simulates the use of integrative (in silico/ in vitro) and chemocentric approaches to strengthen current studies and guide future research in the field of antivirals agents.