The story of Tu Youyou who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the anti-malaria drug artemisinin has inspired Chinese to search for COVID-19 drugs in the treasure house of traditional Chinese medicine. How can COVID-19 be cured? Dr. Nie Leng, graduate of the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been thinking. Although remdesivir effectively suppresses novel coronavirus in in vitro cell test, it has been clinically proven to be ineffective for severe COVID-19 cases by China and WHO. Acquiring knowledge through experience and understanding traditional Chinese medicine and modern medicine, Dr. Nie Leng creatively propose three points of good medicine for COVID-19: (1) effectively inhibit the COVID-19 virus from infecting cells; (2) efficiently repair COVID-19 injury; (3) non-toxic and harmless, and can be made into food. Preventing coronavirus infection while repairing coronavirus injury, only in this way can COVID-19 be cured. Referring to the method of artemisinin, a natural herb was found in the treasure house of traditional Chinese medicine, and then an effective molecule was separated from the herb by chromatography, subverting the COVID-19 drug screening methods of chemical synthesis and biological antibodies. The non-toxic and harmless food has high accessibility and good universality.

Nie Leng, born in Guangshui city, near Wuhan in Hubei province, bachelor of engineering/master of medicine/doctor of physics, master and apprentice of Chinese medicine, has worked and studied in the Chinese Academy of Sciences for years. Back in 2003 during the SARS epidemic period, he witnessed the CAS international cooperation on SARS virus research at the Bureau of International Cooperation Chinese Academy of Sciences. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, Hubei Province, he felt the helpless of his relatives and friends, and hoped to find home-based self-rescue herbal medicine. Non-toxic and harmless is the prerequisite for home-based self-rescue. From the Manual for Barefoot Doctors compiled by the Jiangxi Medical University in 1969, it is found that the tufted spikes of Kyllinga brevifolia Rottb. resemble the COVID-19 virus and the medicinal properties are known by its appearance. Records of Picking Herbs in Lingnan also records that “K. brevifolia Rottb. is rather effective in curing epidemic fever,…”. It is non-toxic and can be eaten by cattle, sheep and fish. It has also been reported as an ingredient of Baicao tea in Taiwan. It has a tea taste, with mild warm and slight sweating property. Dr. Nie Leng and Mr. Liang Youdong of Beijing Century Healthcare Co., Ltd. analyzed and tested the medicinal properties of K. brevifolia Rottb. and identified it as a good medicine for COVID-19. Later, with the help of professor Wang Shumei, doctoral supervisor of the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, batches of K. brevifolia Rottb. were sent to Hubei province for emergency rescue in 2020. On the second day after being discharged from hospital in February 2020, the COVID-19 patient developed low fever, causing anxiety to the patient and his family. The condition was successfully controlled by K. brevifolia Rottb., and the fever finally subsided. Last spring, post-discharged patients with COVID-19 in severe condition in Wuhan suffered severe lung injury, and received significant effect in lung rehabilitation after taking five doses of K. brevifolia Rottb. In Wuhan after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, an elderly people with kidney dialysis and a 90-year-old elderly people after tumor surgery were close contacts with COVID-19 patients, but they had difficulty in quarantine in designated facilities. No one had been infected after home-based medication of K. brevifolia Rottb. None of front-line medical workers, couriers, police and other high-risk groups was infected after taking K. brevifolia Rottb. In vitro cell test confirmed that K. brevifolia Rottb. highly inhibited the COVID-19 virus from infecting cells. K.brevifolia Rottb. meets the three points of novel coronavirus food-medicine: (1) non-toxic and harmless; (2) effectively inhibit the COVID-19 virus from infecting cells; (3) efficiently repair COVID-19 injury. After the relevant results were published in Asia-Pacific Traditional Medicine, the editor of Medicinal Plant invited the manuscript in January 2021. The paper “Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 and Rehabilitation of Kidney, Liver and Cardiovascular Diseases with Kyllinga brevifolia Rottb.” begins with the three points for COVID-19 drugs.

There are large differences in pharmaceutical effect due to different origins of medicinal materials. Learning from artemisinin, finding effective molecules in K.brevifolia Rottb. is in line with the modern drug evaluation system, and it is the only way for Chinese medicine to gain worldwide recognition. Fortunately, Nie Leng found an effective molecule from K. brevifolia Rottb. in cooperation with Liang Youdong, and cell tests confirmed that it was effective in preventing novel coronavirus from infecting cells, named Coroless. In addition to the COVID-19 virus, experiments of SARS pseudovirus infecting cells proved that Coroless and K. brevifolia Rottb. had inhibitory effect, suggesting that Coroless may be universally applicable to the suppression of coronavirus. Molecular mechanism analysis imply that Coroless can down-regulate the high expression of ACE2 receptor on the cell surface of inflammatory tissue, thus reducing viral infection and injury. Coroless together with food-medicine homologous food plants are developed to plant beverage. In March, one patient had persistent high fever after getting the COVID-19 vaccine, and Lianhuaqingwen capsule and ibuprofen failed to reduce the fever. The patient and his family members were anxious, and the fever was gone in two days after taking Coroless plant beverage. In April, one person who got the COVID-19 vaccine had a high fever of 40℃ and D-dimer, a risk indicator of thrombosis, was tripled the upper limit. Three days after taking Coroless plant beverage, the fever was gone. And D-dimer returned to normal later. In June, an ethnic Chinese in Dubai who was infected with COVID-19 lost his sense of taste and smell. The sense of smell recovered significantly after taking Coroless plant beverage, and no family members with close contact were infected after taking the beverage. In July, when Coroless tea was taken together with therapeutic drugs, the patient with COVID-19 in intensive care in Chile recovered significantly faster than those without taking Coroless tea, which were infected in the corresponding time period. Coroless plant beverage is being used as the prevention tea overseas where the epidemic is severe, and so far no one has been infected. Homology of medicine and food is consistent with the spirit advocated by Hippocrates, the father of western medicine – “Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food”. Coroless combines the thinking of both Chinese and western medicine. The relevant achievements were invited to be published in the Journal of Antivirals & Antiretrovirals. The paper “Coroless, Effective Ingredient Isolated from Traditional Chinese Medicine for the Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19” clearly put forward the three points for COVID-19 drugs at the beginning. On FFC 29th International Conference entitled “Can Functional Foods and Bioactive Compounds Reduce the Risk of Diseases?”, Dr. Nie Leng made an academic report on “Coroless, Herb Tea for COVID-19 Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation”, which was the only lecture from mainland China. The beverage conforms to the international food standards and provides support for the health and life security of overseas Chinese and their families. In July, Coroless plant beverages were donated to Ehio-China Friendship Specially Clinic in Africa by Suzhou Premreg Gene Company. In August, Coroless plant beverages were donated to the vessel “Grand Progress”, which was suspended in Zhoushan, East China Sea, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the ship, to ensure the security of the sailors.

Coroless plant beverage is donated to the sailors of the vessel “Grand Progress” through public welfare

On August 16, 2021, Suzhou Premreg Gene Company and Zhongguancun Innovative Enterprise Development and Promotion Association signed a public welfare donation agreement of Coroless plant beverage, intending to distribute Coroless free of charge to high-risk population. The product is one of the research and development achievements of “Special Science and Technology Project of Novel Coronavirus Infection Emergency Prevention and Treatment in 2020 (XG32)” of Suzhou Science and Technology Bureau. The first batch of products is included in the exploration of public health product system construction. The donation was completed with the strong support of Mr. Jiang Ye, executive deputy secretary general of China Foundation for Social and Cultural Development, and Mr. Chen Wen, director of Silk Road Foundation.

Hand in hand, human being would be free from the fear of coronavirus forever!