The Antiviral Potential of Medicinal Plants in Treating Viral Infections

• Published in: Herbal medicines journal Vol. 8; no. 3
• Main Authors: Amin Jaydari, Elahe Sobhani, Shahriyar Mehrabi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lorestan University of Medical Sciences 01.08.2023
• Subjects: Influenza virus, Antiviral, Natural product, Medicinal plant
• ISSN: 2538-2144
• DOI: 10.22087/hmj.v8i3.960

Recently, there has been remarkable progress in the field of antiviral herbal therapy owing to increasing concerns about the development of drug resistance and limited advances in the field of antiviral drug discovery. In almost all countries, medicinal plants have been widely used throughout history for the treatment of diseases and infections as traditional healing remedies due to their broad therapeutic spectrum and minimal or no side effects. As synthetic antiviral drugs are not available against most of the viral agents, hence all possible efforts have been focused on the search for new drugs and complementary alternative medicines from different herbal formulations. Despite their long history of use, the research and scientific evidence regarding the use of medicinal plants and natural products as prophylactics, therapeutics, and their health multiple beneficial applications have only gained momentum in the past few decades. Many scientific studies have been undertaken, which range from the separation of active substances to the comprehension of the therapeutic mechanisms of antiviral herbs, their potent applications in the neutralization of viral pathogens and clinical trials. Consequently, hundreds of herbs and plant metabolites have been screened, identified, and tested for their antiviral activities; fortunately, some have shown significant medicinal activity in the preventing or ameliorating of various viral diseases such as: Rabies, Influenza types A, B and C, Hepatitis B and C in both preclinical and clinical studies.