Through all my years of practice, I have only known Dandelion leaf as a diuretic, a mineraliser and supporting a kidney cleanse, but now it has been revealed as an anti-viral too! This amazing little weed has been shown to significantly inhibit the connection between the viral spike protein, and our ACE2 receptor. In other words, the covid virus (and it seems, all its mutants which were tested) were severely restricted from gaining entry into the cells. More than that, the leaf inhibits the dangerous inflammation that can occur with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Chicory was also found to restrict the binding of the virus to the cell receptor but to a lesser degree.
Dandelions are still to be found in our gardens, so do harvest a few leaves every day for your salads, but please show respect for the plant and leave many more leaves than you take. Bear in mind that winter dandelion is likely to be tough and rather unpalatable, as it is traditionally eaten in the spring as an early salad, so in the absence of dandelion, you can buy fresh chicory.
Hoai Thi Thu Tran, Nguyen Phan Khoi Le, Michael Gigl, Corinna Dawid, Evelyn Lamy
Common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) efficiently blocks the interaction between ACE2 cell surface receptor and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein D614, mutants D614G, N501Y, K417N and E484K in vitro
bioRxiv 2021.03.19.435959; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.19.435959 (Now published in Pharmaceuticals doi: 10.3390/ph14101055)