Natural product research on the coronavirus

Only one third of all medicines are purely synthetic. The majority are derived from natural products. Pharmacist Judith Rollinger and her team from the University of Vienna are investigating which naturally occurring antiviral substances can be used to treat acute respiratory diseases. In order to track down other promising potential drug substances, the scientist is combining empirical knowledge from traditional medicine with Big Data science and complex computer simulations. Using this method, the research group has already managed to isolate plant compounds that are active against both influenza viruses as well as pneumococci. The urgent funding from the Austrian Science Fund will enable Judith Rollinger and her team to comb through hundreds of extracts from fungi, medicinal plants, and microbes in an effort to discover those substances which are effective against the coronavirus.