in vitro anti-rotaviral activity of achillea kellalensis

conclusions these results indicate that a. kellalensis extracts exert potent anti-rotaviral activity only after viral adsorption. the two extracts from a. kellalensis showed a good selectivity index. also these results suggest that extracts prepared from the flowers of a. kellalensis may be potential anti-rotaviral agents in vivo and be useful in veterinary medicine. background achillea kellalensis, which is frequently used by chaharmahal va bakhtiarians residing in, southwest of iran, as a traditional herbal medicine for the treatment of acute diarrhea, has been selected to examine its antiviral activities against bovine rotavirus and cell toxicity activity in ma-104 cells. objectives the aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro cytotoxic and anti-rotavirus properties of crude extracts of a. kellalensis. materials and methods the dried and powdered flowers of achillea kellalensis were extracted with hot water and ethanol 50% (v/v). the cell viability and toxicity of the extracts were evaluated on ma-104 cells using four methods; trypan blue dye, nr, crystal violet and mtt assay. the in vitro anti-rotavirus properties were determined via four different assays, in order to evaluate the direct inhibition and/or the inhibition of viral replication. results cytotoxicity of two a. kellalensis extracts showed different concentrations. hydro-alcoholic extract had low cc50 at 600 µg/ml by the nr assay while the aqueous extract had high cc50 at 1000µg/ml by the crystal violet method. in the simultaneous treatment assay and post treatment assay, the extracts were able to prevent viral replication and inhibit the viral cpe on ma-104 cells at 10 tcid50, but the extracts did not exhibit direct antiviral activity on rotavirus adsorption. the effective concentration (ec50) of both extracts was observed to be 100 µg/ml.