Screening Of Antiviral Compounds From Plants- A Review

Viruses are one of the main hazards for humans and animals, they enter in human body and redirect body’s metabolism to produce large copies of their genome and proteins. It is difficult to control viral infections with currently available drugs like moroxydine, valaciclovir, ganciclovir and valganciclovir and they act by inhibiting the virus replication via different mechanisms. The difficulty in drug treatment arises due to their low efficiencies, cytotoxic effect and development of viral resistance against them as viruses are smart organisms which mutate themselves and show resistance to drug therapy. This review is focused on identification of antiviral compounds or fraction from plants as they contains active phytochemicals. Ole is a unique secoiridoid glycoside which was extracted from Jasminum officinale L. var. grandiflorum has reported to show anti-HBV activity. The methanol, butanol and ethyl acetate extracts of Lactuca sativa var. longifolia showed significant anti-coxsackie B3 activity. Aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Propolis exhibited high level so antiviral activity against HSV-2 due to polyphenols, flavonoids and phenyl carboxylic acid content. One report demonstrates the strongest inhibitory action against HIV-1 RT was found in seven plants few includes Q. infectoria (fruit), A. heterophyllus Lam. (seed) and A. calamus L. (rhizomes). This paper may serve as a vital link between active Pharmacognosy and Formulation and Development department for using active extracts to be formulated and hence gives the best possible solution to the community to treat viral infections.