Antiviral activity of the infusion (SHS‐174) from flowers of Sambucus nigra L., aerial parts of Hypericum perforatum L., and roots of Saponaria officinalis L. against influenza and herpes simplex viruses

Abstract

The SHS-174 preparation, a lyophilized infusion from flowers of Sambucus nigra L., aerial parts of Hypericum perforatum L., and roots of Saponaria oficinalis (100 g; 70 g; 40 g) exhibited an antiviral effect. It inhibited the reproduction of different strains of influenza virus types A and B, both in vitro and in vivo, and herpes simplex virus type 1, in vitro. The preparation contains flavonoids, triterpene saponins, phenolic acids, tannins and polysaccharides which could be responsible for its antiviral properties.

Elderberry flavonoids bind to and prevent H1N1 infection in vitro

“…catechin, quercetin, cyanidin) include the prevention of endosome acidification (Imanishi et al, 2002), the inhibition of membrane fusion (Nagai et al, 1995), the inhibition of progeny virion release (Knox et al, 2001), the inhibition of neuraminidase activity (Knox et al, 2001;Macdonald et al, 2004;Song et al, 2005), and the inhibition of intercellular replication (Serkedjieva et al, 1990). These previously described mechanisms are different from the proposed molecular mode-of-action of compounds 1 and 2.…”

Wound-healing activity of St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum L.) on chicken embryonic fibroblasts

“…Antitumoral effects are also cited (Duke, 1985). Hypericum perforatum has been reported to possess marked antimicrobial (Pei-Gen, 1994), antiviral (Serkedjieva et al, 1990) and anti-HIV/anti-AIDS (Wood et al, 1990) activities. Hypericin and pseudohypericin also display an antiretroviral activity (Lavie et al, 1989).…”

Anti-influenza A virus effect of Hypericum perforatum L. extract

“…It is used in herbal medicine externally for the treatment of skin wounds, eczema and burns and internally for several applications such as diseases of the alimentary tract (21,9). Many studies have shown that Hypericum perforatum L. extract (HPE) has antiviral activity (1,29) and can also have considerable effect against cytomegalovirus (CMV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (2,10,11,40,27,28). The antiviral action of HPE has been studied on lipid enveloped and non-enveloped DNA and RNA viruses (14,15,16,36) and also, clinical studies have been conducted in HIV infected patients (4,37).…”