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  • Title: Comparative study on the antiherpetic activity of aqueous and ethanolic extracts derived from Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.
    Author: Zu Y, Fu Y, Wang W, Wu N, Liu W, Kong Y, Schiebel HM, Schwarz G, Schnitzler P, Reichling J.
    Journal: Forsch Komplementmed; 2010 Mar; 17(1):15-20. PubMed ID: 20215758.
    Abstract:
    INTRODUCTION: Aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Cajanus cajan (Fabaceae) were examined in vitro for their antiviral activity against herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The antiviral activity was determined using a plaque reduction assay. The cytotoxic concentration (CC50) as well as the inhibitory concentration (IC50) of the extracts was determined from dose-response curves. RESULTS: All extracts tested revealed a high antiviral activity against cell-free HSV-1 and HSV-2. The most active one was the Cajanus ethanol extract with IC50 values of 0.022 microg/ml for HSV-1 and 0.1 microg/ml for HSV-2. In order to identify the mode of antiviral action, the extracts were added to the host cells or viruses at different stages of infection. HSV-1 and HSV-2 were considerably inactivated when the viruses were pretreated with the extracts for 1 h prior to cell infection. At maximum non-cytotoxic concentrations of the extracts, plaque formation was significantly reduced by 95-99% for HSV-1 and HSV-2. In a time-dependent assay with cell-free HSV-1 over a period of 2 h, a clearly time-dependent effect was demonstrated whereby the Cajanus ethanol extract revealed a much higher activity than the Cajanus aqueous one. CONCLUSION: The results obtained indicate that the extracts affect HSV before cell adsorption, but have no effect on the intracellular virus replication. According to our findings, a therapeutic application of Cajanus ethanolic extracts containing crème or ointment as antiviral agent in recurrent HSV infection appears to be promising.
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