The Effect of Barley Aqueous Extract on Clinical Signs of COVID-19: An Open-Labeled Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Coronavirus has spread around the world with high prevalence rate and severe manifestations since 2019 (COVID-19) and imposed global economic, social, and health burden. Many studies were conducted to manage the complications of COVID-19 and to reduce the hospital stay but results were not satisfactory. Hence, according to the high potential of medicinal plants in management of diseases, we aimed to investigate the effects of barley aqueous extract (BAE) on clinical and laboratory features of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients. This study was an open-labeled, randomized, controlled clinical trial performed on 80 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in COVID-19 medical center, Isfahan, Iran, from July to August 2021. All patients received a same standard treatment according to the protocol of the Iranian Ministry of Health and BAE was added to the treatment of intervention group. Patients received BAE 200 mL every 4 hours for 5 days. Seventy-two patients completed the study and no significant differences were reported in the baseline data between groups. Results showed significant improvement of shortness of breath (p=0.012) and cough (p=0.09) after receiving BAE, compared to the control group. On the other hand, there was no significant difference between groups considering body temperature, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, muscle pain, and laboratory factors. No serious adverse effect was reported. This study suggests that BAE may serve as a safe complementary treatment for alleviating symptoms of COVID-19; however, more clinical trials with higher sample size are needed.