**4. Management of COVID-19 with the use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs) endorsement**

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is an umbrella term for a broad range of substances and treatments which consist of a cluster of a variety of medic and health care supplies, orders, and actions not characterized under the conceptual framework of medicines. The definition of CAM throughout the literature is not consistent. However, the National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicines (NCCAM) of the National Institute of Health (NIH) defines CAM as "a group of diverse medical and health care systems, products, and practices that are not currently fall under the category of conventional medicine"(NCCAM, 2002) [41]. CAM is utilized either as an alternative or adjuvant therapy of conventional treatments.

The inclination towards using CAM in and around the world, both in terms of prophylactic as well as therapeutic strategies against problems related to health, has been augmented recently [42]. CAM is an extremely broad area that consists of all health beliefs, values, practices, as well as methods exterior to the streamlined present health care system [43]. These are further classified into five important categories by National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). The first category includes alternative medical systems/whole medical systems (homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, ayurvedic medicine), the second category includes biologically-based therapies (probiotics, minerals, vitamins, phytochemicals, whole diets and functional foods, animal-derived extracts, amino acids, proteins and fatty acids), the third category includes manipulative and bodybased methods (chiropractic, osteopathic manipulation, reflexology and massage), the fourth category includes mind–body therapies; healing techniques based on

mind–body therapies (art, praying, meditation, dance, music) and finally the fifth category includes energy-oriented treatments or energy therapies or (therapeutic touch, Qi gong, healing touch) [44].

Greater than 80% of the population around the globe utilizes CAMs. The foundation of the National CAM-Center leads to a significantly augmented number of CAM-related basic research and clinical trials based on CAM therapies. Approximately 30% of the adult population of the U.S. [45] and 10–40% of Europe [46] use CAM. It is predicted that the market per annum for herbal remedies, consisting of raw materials and herbal products will expand by 15% and 5% respectively. The global market for the herbal drug is projected to be \$62 billion, which is likely to rise to \$5 trillion by 2050 [47]. Herbal remedies for boosting the immune system are consumed in several countries across the globe to uplift health, endorse the body's defense against various infectious as well as prohibit and cure several infectious diseases [48]. In this section, several examples of CAMs projected for preventing and curing diseases are elaborated.
