A pilot clinical study of an add-on Ayurvedic formulation containing Tinospora cordifolia and Piper longum in mild to moderate COVID-19

After declaration of Covid – 19 as pandemic by WHO, countries adopted several measures to contain the spread as well as test and treat the patients. Further, as no effective management protocols to address this pandemic were available, a need was felt to explore the integration of modern and traditional medicines to treat Covid 19 cases. In view of this an exploratory nonrandomized prospective study has been undertaken for comparing the outcomes of traditional Ayurvedic classical formulation of Tinospora cordifolia(Guduchi) and Piper longum(Pippali) as an add on to standard of care (SOC) using modern medicine with SOC alone. This has been done in mild and moderate Covid – 19 cases, at a tertiary care integrative Medicine hospital in the National Capital Region, Gurgaon, India.The outcomes have been evaluated in terms of the duration of hospital stay, the time to clinical recovery, safety and non-interference/interaction of Ayurvedic and Further, long term impact of Covid – 19 treatment has been evaluated using quality of life questionnaire after 3 months of discharge.Findings of present study reveals that the Ayurveda add-on formulation of Tinospora cordifolia(Guduchi) and Piper longum (Pippali) has reduced the length of hospital stay and improve the recovery time. General feeling of wellbeing and activity levels were better in the 3 month follow-up post discharge in the Ayurveda add-on group.It is suggested that this formulation needs further investigated to provide more information on effective and safe herbal add-on to SOC for better outcomes to treatment of COVID-19 disease.