Abstract
Background and aims: With four different serotypes including (DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-4), the dengue virus continues to pose a threat to the world public health in the absence of an effective antiviral treatment. There are lots of medicinal plants found in nature present a promising option for the development of new antivirals treatment. In addition to highlighting molecular insights and identifying knowledge gaps, this review aims to analyze the published evidence including in vitro, in vivo, and in silico researches about medicinal plant and plant-derived compound tested against different serotypes of dengue virus. Methods: Scientific databases including NIH, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, Scopus and EBSCO were thoroughly searched for relevant publications published up until June 2025. Few keywords including dengue virus, DENV serotypes, antiviral activity of plants, anti-dengue activity of medicinal plants, potential anti-dengue phytochemicals and plant’s compounds having anti-dengue activity were included in the search strategy to find most of the relevant studies, review and literature. Results: Compound of medicinal plants like andrographolide, flavonoid compounds like quercetin and kaempferol, methyl gallate and anacardic acid, and a number of triterpenoids predicted by docking and phytochemical analysis that they bind to NS2B-NS3 protease enzyme of dengue virus and are important leads with multi-serotype or strong serotype-specific inhibition. In general, most of the high-quality experimental data are only available from in-vitro tests, which often use DENV-2, and there is not many comprehensive in-vivo or clinical assessment. Conclusion: Anti-dengue drugs can be made from a variety of compounds found in plants and phytochemicals derived from medicinal plants.