Fact Check: No, Mustard oil cannot cure coronavirus; however, it has certain health benefits

A post doing rounds on social media claims that mustard oil can kill any form of virus, it can kill coronavirus too. It further claims that coronavirus enters through a person’s nose and if mustard oil is applied in the nostrils of the infected person before bathing, it will protect him for at least eight hours from the virus. Vishvas News investigated and found that even though mustard oil has certain health benefits, it doesn’t kill coronavirus. The viral post is fake.

Claim

A viral post on Facebook shared by a page named Mahendra Palecha written in Hindi (translated to English) reads: Mustard oil can kill any form of the virus. Coronavirus is a respiratory disease that is spread through droplets from the nose when a person coughs or sneezes. If we inhale that virus-infected air, we get infected too. Using mustard oil, will cause the virus to stick to the walls of the nose and then prevents it from reaching a person’s lungs by killing the virus.” The archived version of the post can be checked here.

Investigation

Vishvas News searched on whether mustard oil can kill coronavirus. Neither on the website of World Health Organization (WHO) nor on Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s website was it mentioned that mustard oil can kill coronavirus.

However, we found that mustard oil has certain health benefits; like, decreasing inflammation, relieving body pain, etc. But, nowhere in the reports did we find that mustard oil can cure coronavirus.

As per World Health Organization (WHO), While some western, traditional or home remedies may provide comfort and alleviate symptoms of COVID-19, there is no evidence that current medicine can prevent or cure the disease. WHO does not recommend self-medication with any medicines, including antibiotics, as a prevention or cure for COVID-19. However, there are several ongoing clinical trials that include both western and traditional medicines. WHO will continue to provide updated information as soon as clinical findings are available.

Vishvas News spoke to Dr. Vimal N, who is an Ayurveda doctor, Ministry of AYUSH. He said: “Mustard oil can be applied once in a while to improve irritation in the nose, it has certain health benefits. BUT, this is not a coronavirus cure, there is no scientific evidence.”

The viral post is shared by a Facebook page Mahendra Palecha. When we performed social scanning of the user we found that the page has 187 followers.

Conclusion

No, Mustard oil cannot cure coronavirus; however, it has certain health benefits. The viral post claiming that mustard oil can kill coronavirus is fake.

Disclaimer: The article has been modified by removing some details which were not required or irrelevant to the article. The #CoronavirusFacts database records fact-checks published since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic and its consequences are constantly evolving and data that was accurate weeks or even days ago might have changed. Remember to check the date when the fact-check you are reading was published before sharing it. 

Tags

• Coronavirus
• Coronavirus Fake News
• CoronaVirusFacts
• COVID19