Isolation and In Silico Anti-COVID-19 Main Protease (Mpro) Activities of Flavonoids and a Sesquiterpene Lactone from Artemisia sublessingiana

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic declared huge need humanity for new and effective antiviral drugs. reported antimicrobial activities Artemisia sublessingiana encouraged us to investigate ethanol extract its aerial parts which led isolation six flavonoids a sesquiterpenoid. structures isolated compounds were elucidated by EI-MS, 1D, 2D NMR spectroscopic methods be (1) eupatilin, (2) 3?,4?-dimethoxyluteolin, (3) 5,7,3?-trihydroxy-6,4?,5?-trimethoxyflavone, (4) hispidulin, (5) apigenin, (6) velutin, (7) sesquiterpene lactone 8?,14-dihydroxy-11,13-dihydromelampolide. in silico examined against main protease (Mpro) enzyme. Compounds 1–6 exhibited promising binding modes showing free energies ranging from ?6.39 ?6.81 (kcal/mol). best energy was compound 2. obtained results give hope finding treatment pandemic.