Herbs and Medications Used for Treatment and Prophylaxis of Influenza Infections Including H5N1, H1N1, SARS‑CoV, and SARS‑CoV‑2

Background: Herbs are plants or plant parts used for their scent, flavor, or therapeutic properties. Herbal medicine is one type of dietary supplement that has been used for thousands of years for treatment or prophylaxis of many diseases including influenza virus infection. Although there are many previous studies about these issues, I did not find many research about using these herbs in treatment or prophylaxis of other influenza infections including H5N1, H1N1, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), and SARS-CoV-2. Objective: To collect, evaluate, and explore new important data about using medicinal herbs in these disorders' treatment or prophylaxis. Materials and Methods: I collected and explored new results and data from 24 professional health-care givers who had an experience about using these herbs in treatment or prophylaxis of these diseases. Then, I evaluated descriptively and quantitatively the results with alpha significance level ≤5% by tests such as Chi-square one-sample and reliability and validity tests. Results: The study showed many significant results about using these herbs, through using descriptive tests including one-sample Chi-square test, like in SARS-CoV-2 treatment (n = 414) with mean = 2.5870 ± 0.06730 and P < 0.05, while in SARS-CoV-2, prophylaxis (n = 275) with mean = 2.1164 ± 0.06271 and P < 0.05. Conclusion: This study revealed that there are some particular herbs that can be used in the treatment and prophylaxis of these diseases as adjunctives to the main typical treatment regimen, not as a monotherapy. Furthermore, many studies should be conducted in this field.