As industries around the world retool in an effort to support the fight against COVID-19, the team at Vanguard Scientific has focused on the role of plant-derived terpenes with their antimicrobial and antiviral application.  Like influenza, coronaviruses are enveloped viruses and research available suggests that enveloped viruses are inactivated by some essential oils and their constituents. Terpenes such as cinnamaldehyde (Cinnamon) , Eugenol (Clove), Mentha piperita (Peppermint), 1,8-cineole (Sage) have shown various levels of antiviral properties including some as effective HA inhibitors during an in vitro study examining H1N1. According to an article published in 2016 in the scientific journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (eCAM), “Essential oils have great potential in the field of biomedicine as they effectively destroy several bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens.”