Virucidal and Antiviral Activity of Extract of Punica Granatum Cultivated in Brazil

Abstract

Background: The arthropod-borne Mayaro virus (MAYV) causes ‘Mayaro fever’, a disease of medical significance, primarily affecting individuals in permanent contact with forested areas in tropical South America. Recently, MAYV has attracted attention due to its likely urbanization. Currently, there are no licensed drugs against most mosquito-transmitted viruses. Punica granatum (pomegranate) fruits cultivated in Brazil were submitted to a phytochemical investigation for the identification and isolation of antiviral compounds. In the present study we studied the antiviral activity of pomegranate extracts in Vero cells infected with Mayaro virus. Methods: The Ethanol extract and Punicalagin of Pomegranate were extracted solely of the shell and purified by chromatographic fractionation and chemically identified using spectroscopic techniques. Cytotoxicity of purified compounds was measured by the dye-uptake assay while their antiviral activity was evaluated by a virus yield inhibition assay.Results: Pomegranate ethanol extract (CC50 = 588.9, IC50 = 12.3) and a fraction containing punicalagin as major compound (CC50 = 441.5, IC50 = 28.2) were shown to have antiviral activity (SI 49 and 16, respectively) against Mayaro virus, an alphavirus. Immunofluorescence analysis showed the virucidal effect of Pomegranate extract and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) revealed damage in viral particles treated with this extract. Conclusions: The P. granatum extract is a promising source of antiviral compounds against the alphavirus MAYV and are excellent candidates for future studies with other enveloped RNA viruses.

In Vitro Screening for Antitrypanosomal Potentials of Punica granatum L. Leaves Crude Extracts

“…Recent studies on pomegranate have focused on its antibacterial [Gosset-Erard et al, 2021;Mehra et al, 2021], anticarcinogenic [Moga et al, 2021] antidiabetic [Bashkin et al, 2021], anti-in ammatory [El Bohi et al, 2021], antimicrobial [Elsha e, et al, 2021], antioxidant [Khemakhem et al, 2021], antirheumatic [Malek et al, 2021] and antiviral [Salles et al, 2021] properties. The purpose of this study was to collect scienti c data on the phytochemical content and antitrypanosomal potential of three different pomegranate leaf extracts.…”