Phytochemical screening and antiviral activity of Marrubium vulgare

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Introduction

Acute and recurrent herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infections remain an important problem due to the emergence of acyclovir (ACV) resistant virus that makes the search for novel antiviral substances imperative. Potential anti-herpes activity of bioactive compounds from numerous plant species have been investigated (Allahverdiyev et al., 2004; Verma et al., 2008).

HSV-1 is a DNA virus that causes a variety of diseases in humans. In some instances, HSV-1 is a major threat to immune- compromised patients (Serkedjieva et al., 1999; Chuanasa et al., 2008). The present study thus sought to screen a medicinal plant, Marrubium vulgare for the safety and potential in anti-virus therapy. M. vulgare grows in the wild and commonly known as “Horehound” belongs to the Lamiaceae family (Masoodi et al., 2008). It has been used in folk medicine and reported to possess a wide range of biological activities and pharmacological properties. This plant has been previously reported to have antihypertensive activity (El-Baradai et al., 2004), exhibiting vasorelaxant (El-Baradai et al., 2003a; 2003b), anti-diabetic (Elberry et al., 2011; Boudjelal et al., 2012), anti-oxidant (Kadri et al., 2011), anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-bacterial (Masoodi et al., 2008; Kanyonga et al., 2011) and antioedematogenic (Stulzer et al., 2006) activities.

However, bibliographic searches reveal that there is a dearth of information on its antiviral activity against HSV-1. In this study, various fractions of the M. vulgare were determined for their phytochemical constituents. The cytotoxicity and antiviral activity against HSV-1 evaluated for the crude and fractions to determine the potential as antiviral agents. The viral attachment and virus yield assays carried out for the hexane fraction to determine the preliminary mode of action.

Source:https://mjm.usm.my/uploads/issues/351/5%20Corrected%20proof%20MJM%20580-13.pdf