Anti-influenza virus activity of two extracts of the blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum L.) from New Zealand and Poland
Abstract
We investigated the inhibitory effect of extracts of blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum L.) from New Zealand and Poland on 4 strains of influenza virus (IFV) by the inhibition of virus adsorption; pandemic flu from 2009-2010 (IFV-AH1pdm), Hong Kong flu (IFV-AH3), oseltamivir phosphate-resistant Russian flu (IFV-AH1tam(r)) and influenza virus type B (IFV-B). The inhibitory effect of the extracts of blackcurrant or blueberry on the infectivity of the virion were evaluated by the inhibition of virus adsorption on the cell surface (adsorption-inhibitory assay). Three percent solutions of the blackcurrant extracts from New Zealand and Poland were enough to disinfect more than half of IFV-AH1pdm and IFV-B, and 10% solutions from both regions disinfected all IFV strains completely. Our previous study showed that the antiviral effect of the blackcurrant differed according to viral species. Here we showed that although the antiviral effect of Blackcurrant was slightly different within viral strains from one species, the extract of Blackcurrant could disinfect all of 4 IFV strains we examined. The extracts of blackcurrant showed definite potential for use as a disinfectant and antiseptic agent to prevent IFV infection.
... It has been suggested that berry polyphenols inhibit adsorption of influenza A virus to cells likely at the attachment point of the virus [48]; hence, potentially interfering with the HA receptor-binding site [47]. In a later study of the antiviral activity of blackcurrant extract against influenza A and B, it was found that a shorter contact time with the extract was equally effective [49]. They suggested the hypothesis that blackcurrant compounds affect the cell-surface, the viral receptor, or possibly the virus hemagglutinin protein [49]. ...
... In a later study of the antiviral activity of blackcurrant extract against influenza A and B, it was found that a shorter contact time with the extract was equally effective [49]. They suggested the hypothesis that blackcurrant compounds affect the cell-surface, the viral receptor, or possibly the virus hemagglutinin protein [49]. ...
Due to rising consumer preference for natural remedies, the search for natural antiviral agents has accelerated considerably in recent years. Among the natural sources of compounds with potential antiviral proprieties, berries are interesting candidates, due to their association with health-promoting properties, including antioxidant, antimutagenic, anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective properties. The past two decades have witnessed a flurry of new findings. Studies suggest promising antiviral proprieties against enveloped and non-enveloped viruses, particularly of cranberries, blueberries, blackcurrants, black raspberries, and pomegranates. The aim of this review is to assemble these findings, to list the implied mechanisms of action, and thereby point out promising subjects for research in this field, in the hope that compounds obtainable from natural sources such as berries may be used someday to treat, or even prevent, viral infections.
... A list of foods, constituent food compounds and enrichment scores can be found in Additional file 8 previously suggested (see Additional file 6). Similarly, the complex antiviral molecular profile of berries such as blackcurrant and blueberries may explain their experimentally observed potency against genetically and phenotypically diverse viruses [45], though their ability to protect specifically against COVID-19 is yet to be evaluated in clinical trials. ...
In this paper, we introduce a network machine learning method to identify potential bioactive anti-COVID-19 molecules in foods based on their capacity to target the SARS-CoV-2-host gene-gene (protein-protein) interactome. Our analyses were performed using a supercomputing DreamLab App platform, harnessing the idle computational power of thousands of smartphones. Machine learning models were initially calibrated by demonstrating that the proposed method can predict anti-COVID-19 candidates among experimental and clinically approved drugs (5658 in total) targeting COVID-19 interactomics with the balanced classification accuracy of 80–85% in 5-fold cross-validated settings. This identified the most promising drug candidates that can be potentially “repurposed” against COVID-19 including common drugs used to combat cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, such as simvastatin, atorvastatin and metformin. A database of 7694 bioactive food-based molecules was run through the calibrated machine learning algorithm, which identified 52 biologically active molecules, from varied chemical classes, including flavonoids, terpenoids, coumarins and indoles predicted to target SARS-CoV-2-host interactome networks. This in turn was used to construct a “food map” with the theoretical anti-COVID-19 potential of each ingredient estimated based on the diversity and relative levels of candidate compounds with antiviral properties. We expect this in silico predicted food map to play an important role in future clinical studies of precision nutrition interventions against COVID-19 and other viral diseases.
... The teratogens are group of harmful substances that induce congenital malformations by inducing abnorma lities during the embryonic growth in the differentiation process of developing organs. The malformations in-1 University of Karachi, 2 Herbion Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd., 3 ...
1 января 2020 года. Объем финансирования ГОБМП сохранится на прежнем уровне. Бес-платной остается вся экстренная помощь, первичная медикосанитарная, скорая и паллиативная помощь, санитарная авиация. Также предусмотрен полный перечень медицинской помощи при социальнозначимых заболеваниях и 25 основных хронических неинфекционных заболеваниях, таких как болезни сердечнососудистой системы, ор-ганов дыхания, онкология, сахарный диабет, психические расстройства, которые дают высокую инвалидиза-цию и смертность. Бесплатными остаются консультативнодиагностическая, стационарозамещающая, пла-новая стационарная помощь, амбулаторнолекарственное обеспечение, медицинская реабилитация при ту-беркулезе. А за 15 льготных категорий, в числе которых дети, пенсионеры, инвалиды, многодетные матери, в ОСМС будет платить взносы государство. Самым же неприятным воспоминанием об уходящем лете станет, особенно для людей в белых халатах, нападения на их коллег в разных уголках страны. Сказывается и ухудшение жизни людей в условиях экономи-ческого кризиса, который тяжело переживает население почти всех стран, и элементарная усталость врачей, которых катастрофически не хватает на всем постсоветском пространстве. Проблема с укомплектованием уч-реждений здравоохранения и подготовкой медицинских кадров для отрасли решается, а пока люди в белых халатах работают на износ, стараясь не принимать близко к сердцу и грубость пациентов, и тяжелые будни, и чрезмерные нагрузки. Однако такое состояние, особенно у молодых врачей, по мнению ученых и психоло-гов, приводит к разочарованию в профессии и, зачастую, к депрессии. Синдром эмоционального (професси-онального) выгорания был официально признан Всемирной организацией здравоохранения, в августе этого года озвучившей ряд мероприятий, направленных на решение этого вопроса в 2020 году. А пока нужно честно и профессионально лечить больных, повышать свою квалификацию, заводить се-мьи и растить детей и учиться не поддаваться сплину. На досуге слушать любимую музыку, общаться с род-ными, записаться на курсы, посещать интересные лекции, читать деловую и научную литературу, смотреть интересные фильмы и спектакли. Когда день наполнен не только должностными обязанностями, но и корот-кими прогулками, неспешными вечерними чаепитиями, занятиями в спортзале или встречами с друзьями, то и усталость от работы проходит. Великий Людвиг ван Бетховен, писавший потрясающую музыку, будучи полностью глухим, сказал: «Жизнь прекрасна, даже когда по щекам текут слезы!». Прекрасной всем жизни, мудрости и терпения, ведь именно этими качествами обладает настоящий врач! Фарида СУЛЕЕВА, координатор редакции журнала
Berries are acknowledged as a rich source of major dietary antioxidants and the fact that berry phenolics exhibit antioxidant property is widely accepted. Berries are abundant in Vitamin C and polyphenols such as anthocyanins, flavonoids, and phenolic acids. Polyphenols are found to have several therapeutic effects such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Increasing studies are being focused on natural products and their components for alternative therapeutics against viral infections. Especially berries such as Elderberry, blueberry, raspberry, and cranberry have proven to be effective against viral infections. Of note, the decoction of Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) has been shown to treat viral epidemic diseases. Owing to the rich source of various antiviral constituents, berries could be an alternative source for managing viral infections. In this review, we provide insights into how berry derived components inhibit viral infection and their clinical usefulness in viral disease management.
Fruits have been widely consumed since the beginning of human evolution and are important source of a healthy being and helpful in treating various diseases as immunity boosters with the presence of a rich amount of health-promoting bioactives. Therapeutic efficacies of fruit extracts are reported to have immune-modulatory properties and influence greatly on the immune system of human body. Given the facts of the efficacy of edible fruits in improving the immunity of body as immune-stimulants, we have tried to consolidate the previously published data on edible fruits and its juices with antiviral potential. The objective of this review was to gather information on edible fruits with antiviral properties and the efforts to obtain their efficient delivery. Online bibliographical databases like PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were used to search literature on the antiviral effect of edible fruit extracts and fruit juices. The edible fruits like almond, apple, bael, blackberry, black currants, crane berry, citrus, grapes, Japanese cherry, mango, mulberry, pistachios, pomegranate, and strawberry showed promising antiviral properties against the different pathogenic viruses. The review provided an overview of likely effects of the intake of edible fruit extracts/fruit juices to strengthen the immune cells by reducing the oxidative stress in host body system which in turn inhibits the viral attachment and replication on the host cell. Hence these fruits can also be exploited in combating COVID-19 in the current pandemic situation. To validate the present hypothesis, the proposed edible fruit extracts can be evaluated against the SARS-CoV-2 via in vitro and in vivo models to confirm the fact.
Ethnopharmacological relevance:
The genus Ribes Linn., which belongs to the Grossulariaceae family, contains 160 species distributed mainly in temperate and cold regions of the Northern Hemisphere. There are 59 species in southwest, northwest and northeast China. Some species of Ribes have been used as traditional and local medicines for the treatment of glaucoma, cardiovascular disease, stomachache, hepatitis, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and other ailments. However, the data provided in recent years have not been collated and compared.
Aim of the study:
This review aims to summarize the current status of ethnopharmacological uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, clinical applications, and pharmacokinetics of the genus Ribes to better understand the therapeutic potential of the genus Ribes in the future and hope to provide a relatively novel perspective for further clinical application on the genus.
Materials and methods:
The literature on Ribes was collected through a series of scientific search engines including Elsevier, ACS, Springer, Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, Baidu Scholar, Wiley, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and books.
Results:
Ribes species have been used for detoxification, glaucoma, cardiovascular disease, stomachache, hepatitis, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and other ailments. These plants mainly contain phenolic glycosides, flavonoids, proanthocyanidins, polysaccharides, etc. Most traditional uses are related to biological activity and have been confirmed by modern research. Pharmacological studies in vitro and in vivo revealed that the extracts and pure compounds possessed significant hypolipidemic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antibacterial, and antiviral activity, eyesight protection and other effects.
Conclusions:
The traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and clinical applications described in this article explained that the Ribes species has numerous activities, and these findings will promote further action in the area of mechanism research. However, very few preclinical and clinical studies have focused on the toxicology and pharmacokinetics of crude extracts and pure compounds from the genus Ribes. Moreover, several clinical evidence to support the health benefits of Ribes plants. The development of new medicines based on Ribes species as ingredients may be restricted. The pharmacological activity, clinical efficacy and safety of Ribes species need to be verified by systematic and comprehensive preclinical studies and clinical trials.
In this paper, we introduce a network machine learning method to identify potential bioactive anti-COVID-19 molecules in foods based on their capacity to target the SARS-CoV-2-host gene-gene (protein-protein) interactome. Our experiments were run using a supercomputing DreamLab App platform, harnessing the idle computational power of thousands of smartphones. Machine learning models were initially calibrated by demonstrating that the proposed method can predict anti-COVID-19 candidates among experimental and clinically approved drugs (5658 in total) targeting COVID-19 interactomics with the balanced classification accuracy of 80-85% in 5-fold cross-validated settings. This identified the most promising drug candidates that can be potentially “repurposed” against COVID-19 including common drugs used to combat cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, such as simvastatin, atorvastatin and metformin. A database of 7694 bioactive food-based molecules was run through the calibrated machine-learning algorithm, which identified 52 biologically active molecules, from varied chemical classes, including flavonoids, terpenoids, coumarins and indoles predicted to target SARS-CoV-2-host interactome networks. This in turn was used to construct a “food map” with the theoretical anti-COVID-19 potential of each ingredient estimated based on the diversity and relative levels of candidate compounds with antiviral properties. We expect this in-silico predicted food map to play an important role in future clinical studies of precision nutrition interventions against COVID-19 and other viral diseases.
Coronavirus pneumonia disease (COVID-19) is a newly identified coronavirus strain that causes symptoms ranging from cold-like signs to deaths that reached millions around the world. Until this time, there is no approved vaccine has been invented for clinical use, therefore, developing an effective program for therapy is of high priority to save the lives of patients and protect others from being infected. Nature resembles a huge reservoir of anti-infectious compounds, from which innovative ideas, therapies, and products can be deduced. Chinese herbal medicine had succeeded in the treatment of other coronavirus pneumonia such as SARS, MERS and, H7N9 avian influenza which gives us hope to find the targeted remedy in the traditionally used natural herbs consumed by natives from different regions. This work aims to highlight the use of natural traditional remedies to treat viral pneumonia. This systematic review will include studies of the effects of traditional herbal medicine and its role in the treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia. Although promising results were obtained in many cases, but, only a few studies reported the fractional characterization of bioactive principles and/or mechanisms of action. It is requested that pharmaceutical industries, government agencies, and the scientific community will have a gaze at some of these plants for future research and, to find a potential drug candidates for the development of anti-SARSCoV-2 therapeutics in the near future. Peer Review History: Received: 6 September 2020; Revised: 10 October; Accepted: 25 October, Available online: 15 November 2020 UJPR follows the most transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. The identity of the authors and, reviewers will be known to each other. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. As a result of this unique system, all reviewers will get their due recognition and respect, once their names are published in the papers. We expect that, by publishing peer review reports with published papers, will be helpful to many authors for drafting their article according to the specifications. Auhors will remove any error of their article and they will improve their article(s) according to the previous reports displayed with published article(s). The main purpose of it is ‘to improve the quality of a candidate manuscript’. Our reviewers check the ‘strength and weakness of a manuscript honestly’. There will increase in the perfection, and transparency. Received file Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 5.0/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 7.0/10 Reviewer(s) detail: Prof. Dr. Ali Gamal Ahmed Al-kaf, Sana'a university, Yemen, alialkaf21@gmail.com Prof. Dr. Amani S. Awaad, College of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj. KSA. amaniawaad@hotmail.com Comments of reviewer(s): Similar Articles: EUCALYPTUS ESSENTIAL OIL; AN OFF-LABEL USE TO PROTECT THE WORLD FROM COVID-19 PANDEMIC: REVIEW-BASED HYPOTHESES THE RISKS AND ADVANTAGES OF ANTI-DIABETES THERAPY IN THE POSITIVE COVID-19 PATIENT
Coronavirus pneumonia disease (COVID-19) is a newly identified coronavirus strain that causes symptoms ranging from cold-like signs to deaths that reached millions around the world. Until this time, there is no approved vaccine has been invented for clinical use, therefore, developing an effective program for therapy is of high priority to save the lives of patients and protect others from being infected. Nature resembles a huge reservoir of anti-infectious compounds, from which innovative ideas, therapies, and products can be deduced. Chinese herbal medicine had succeeded in the treatment of other coronavirus pneumonia such as SARS, MERS and, H7N9 avian influenza which gives us hope to find the targeted remedy in the traditionally used natural herbs consumed by natives from different regions. This work aims to highlight the use of natural traditional remedies to treat viral pneumonia. This systematic review will include studies of the effects of traditional herbal medicine and its role in the treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia. Although promising results were obtained in many cases, but, only a few studies reported the fractional characterization of bioactive principles and/or mechanisms of action. It is requested that pharmaceutical industries, government agencies, and the scientific community will have a gaze at some of these plants for future research and, to find a potential drug candidates for the development of anti-SARSCoV-2 therapeutics in the near future.
A new pathogen severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread worldwide and become pandemic with thousands new deaths and infected cases globally. To treat the patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19), currently no effective drug or vaccine is available. This necessity motivated us to explore potential lead compounds based natural products targeting main protease (Mpro) enzyme of SARS-CoV-2. The Mpro enzyme plays a key role in mediating viral replication and transcription and thus being considered as an attractive drug target. Herein, comprehensive computational investigations were performed to identify new lead compounds against main protease enzyme. In this study, the candidate anthocyanin-derived compounds from PubChem database were filtered considering antiviral characteristics of anthocyanins. The structure-based pharmacophore modeling was developed based on the co-crystallized structure of the enzyme with its biological active inhibitor. The generated hypotheses were applied for virtual screening-based PHASE Screen Score. Docking based virtual screening work flow was used to generate hit compounds using HTVS, SP and XP based Glide Gscore. The obtained hit compounds were filtered using ADMET pharmacological and physicochemical properties screening. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to explore the binding affinities of the considered compounds. Our study identified six best anthocyanin-derived natural compounds which could be used as promising lead compounds against main protease SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma
A high-molecular-weight constituent of cranberry juice has been found to inhibit the sialyllactose specific adhesion of Helicobacter pylori strains to immobilized human mucus, erythrocytes, and cultured gastric epithelial cells. Different isolates of H. pylori differ in their affinity to the cranberry juice constituent. Cranberry juice may also inhibit adhesion of bacteria to the stomach in vivo, and may prove useful for the prevention of stomach ulcer that is caused by H. pylori.
Elderberry has been used in folk medicine for centuries to treat influenza, colds and sinusitis, and has been reported to have antiviral activity against influenza and herpes simplex. We investigated the efficacy and safety of oral elderberry syrup for treating influenza A and B infections. Sixty patients (aged 18-54 years) suffering from influenza-like symptoms for 48 h or less were enrolled in this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study during the influenza season of 1999-2000 in Norway. Patients received 15 ml of elderberry or placebo syrup four times a day for 5 days, and recorded their symptoms using a visual analogue scale. Symptoms were relieved on average 4 days earlier and use of rescue medication was significantly less in those receiving elderberry extract compared with placebo. Elderberry extract seems to offer an efficient, safe and cost-effective treatment for influenza. These findings need to be confirmed in a larger study.
Cranberry juice contains high molecular weight materials (NDM) that inhibit bacterial adhesion to host cells as well as the co-aggregation of many oral bacteria. Because of its broad-spectrum activity, we investigated NDM's potential for inhibiting influenza virus adhesion to cells, and subsequent infectivity. Hemagglutination (HA) of red blood cells (RBC) caused by representatives of both influenza virus A subtypes (H1N1)and H3N2) and the B type was inhibited by NDM at concentrations of 125 microg/ml or lower, which is at least 20-fold lower than that usually found in cranberry juice. A dose-response effect of NDM on HA was demonstrated. The infectivity of the A and B types was significantly reduced by preincubation with NDM (250 microg/ml), as reflected by the lack of cytopathic effect on Madine-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells and the lack of HA activity in the media of infected cells. The effect of NDM was also tested after A or B type viruses were allowed to adsorb to and penetrate the cells. Various levels of reduction in virus tissue culture infective dose TCID50 were observed. The effect was most pronounced when NDM was added several times to the infected MDCK cells. Our cumulative findings indicate that the inhibitory effect of NDM on influenza virus adhesion and infectivity may have a therapeutic potential.
We investigated the inhibitory effects of an extract of the blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum L.) against pathogens associated with oral, nasopharyngeal and upper respiratory infectious diseases; i.e., respiratory syncitial virus (RSV), influenza virus A and B (IFV-A and IFV-B), adenovirus (AdV), herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), Haemophilus influenzae type B, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus mutans. The extract inhibited viral replication by over 50% at a blackcurrant concentration of less than 1% and inhibited adsorption of the virus on the cell surface by over 95% at a concentration of 10% in the case of RSV, IFV-A and -B, and HSV-1, though the effects against AdV were much lower (The IC(50) of AdV replication was 2.54±0.26, and a 10% concentration of the extract inhibited AdV adsorption on the cell surface by 72.9±3.4%). The antibacterial activities of the blackcurrant were evaluated on the basis of its efficacy as a disinfectant. The extract (10%) disinfected 99.8% of H. Influenzae type B and 78.9% of S. pneumoniae in 10 min, but showed no effect against S. mutans. The blackcurrant extract neutralized with sodium hydroxide also showed antiviral and antibacterial activities, suggesting that these activities were not the result of acidic reactions or the components precipitated under neutralized conditions. These findings demonstrate the potential of the blackcurrant extract as a functional food for oral care.
A standardized elderberry extract, Sambucol (SAM), reduced hemagglutination and inhibited replication of human influenza viruses type A/Shangdong 9/93 (H3N2), A/Beijing 32/92 (H3N2), A/Texas 36/91 (H1N1), A/Singapore 6/86 (H1N1), type B/Panama 45/90, B/Yamagata 16/88, B/Ann Arbor 1/86, and of animal strains from Northern European swine and turkeys, A/Sw/Ger 2/81, A/Tur/Ger 3/91, and A/Sw/Ger 8533/91 in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells. A placebo-controlled, double blind study was carried out on a group of individuals living in an agricultural community (kibbutz) during an outbreak of influenza B/Panama in 1993. Fever, feeling of improvement, and complete cure were recorded during 6 days. Sera obtained in the acute and convalescent phases were tested for the presence of antibodies to influenza A, B, respiratory syncytial, and adenoviruses. Convalescent phase serologies showed higher mean and mean geometric hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers to influenza B in the group treated with SAM than in the control group. A significant improvement of the symptoms, including fever, was seen in 93.3% of the cases in the SAM-treated group within 2 days, whereas in the control group 91.7% of the patients showed an improvement within 6 days (p < 0.001). A complete cure was achieved within 2 to 3 days in nearly 90% of the SAM-treated group and within at least 6 days in the placebo group (p < 0.001). No satisfactory medication to cure influenza type A and B is available. Considering the efficacy of the extract in vitro on all strains of influenza virus tested, the clinical results, its low cost, and absence of side-effects, this preparation could offer a possibility for safe treatment for influenza A and B.
Because previous studies have shown that a high molecular mass constituent of cranberry juice inhibited adhesion of Escherichia coli to epithelial cells and coaggregation of oral bacteria, we have examined its effect on the adhesion of Helicobacter pylori to immobilized human mucus and to erythrocytes. We employed three strains of H. pylori all of which bound to the mucus and agglutinated human erythrocytes via a sialic acid-specific adhesin. The results showed that a high molecular mass constituent derived from cranberry juice inhibits the sialic acid-specific adhesion of H. pylori to human gastric mucus and to human erythrocytes.
Earlier, we have detected antiviral activity in an extract from Ribes nigrum L. fruits ("Kurokarin", name of the one species of black currant in Japanese) against influenza A and B viruses, and herpes simplex virus 1 (Knox et al., Food Processing 33, 21-23, 1998). In the present study, the antiviral activity of constituents of a Kurokarin extract and the mechanism of its antiviral action were examined. Kurokarin extracts were separated to fractions A to D by column chromatography. The major constituents of the fraction D were estimated as anthocyanins. The fraction D was further fractionated by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) to fractions A' to G'. The fraction E' consisted of 3-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-cyanidin and 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-cyanidin, and the fraction F' consisted of 3-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-delphinidin and 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-delphinidin, identified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with standards and by high resolution mass spectrometry. The fractions D' to G' showed potent antiviral activity against influenza viruses A and B. The additive antiviral effect of a combination of the fractions E' and F' was assessed. Anthocyanins in the fraction F' did not directly inactivate influenza viruses A and B, but they inhibited virus adsorption to cells and also virus release from infected cells.
This experiment was designed to detect the antiviral activities of crude fruit extracts of wild Ribes nigrum L. (Kurokarin extract) against influenza virus types A and B. Kurokarin extract was prepared as follows: fruits of Ribes nigrum L. were heated at 50 degrees C in a heating tank, and then ground under anaerobic conditions. The extracts were centrifuged, and the supernatant fluid was filtered and sterilized by infrared rays. The crude extract was diluted with Eagle's minimum essential medium (MEM) and the solution was adjusted to a pH 7.2 with 0.1 N or 1 N NaOH. Proven anti-influenza virus effects of the extracts were shown. The concentration of extract required to inhibit the plaque formation of both IVA and IVB by 50% (IC(50)) was 3.2 microgram/mL. Both IVA and IVB were directly inactivated up to 99% by 10 microgram/mL of the extract at pH 2.8, and 95% to 98% by this dose at pH 7.2. The growth of IVA in cells treated with 10 and 100 microgram/mL of the extract for 6 h after infection was completely suppressed. Virus titres in culture fluids of the cells treated with 100 microgram/mL of Kurokarin extract for 1 h at 8 to 9 h after infection, were completely suppressed, indicating that the extract inhibited the virus release from the infected cells.
An extract of Ribes nigrum L., known as blackcurrant in Europe and Kurokarin(R) in Japan, has been used as an ingredient in a variety of foods and folk medicine. In this study, the anti-herpesvirus activity of this extract was examined in vitro. The extract inhibited herpes simplex virus type 1 attachment on the cell membrane completely at a 100-fold dilution, as well as the plaque formation of herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2, and varicella-zoster virus by 50% at a 400-fold dilution or lower concentrations. This latter activity, which inhibits virus replication in cells, was due to the inhibition of protein synthesis in infected cells from the early stage of infection. Kurokarin is a possible candidate as a herbal medicine for herpesvirus infectious diseases.
Emerging epidemiological evidence is increasingly pointing to the beneficial effects of fruits and vegetables in managing chronic and infectious diseases. These beneficial effects are now suggested to be due to the constituent phenolic phytochemicals having antioxidant activity. Cranberry like other fruits is also rich in phenolic phytochemicals such as phenolic acids, flavonoids and ellagic acid. Consumption of cranberry has been historically been linked to lower incidences of urinary tract infections and has now been shown to have a capacity to inhibit peptic ulcer-associated bacterium, Helicobacter pylori. Isolated compounds from cranberry have also been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Recent evidence suggests the ability of phytochemical components in whole foods in being more effective in protectively supporting human health than compared to isolated individual phenolic phytochemicals. This implies that the profile of phenolic phytochemicals determines the functionality of the whole food as a result of synergistic interaction of constituent phenolic phytochemicals. Solid state bioprocessing using food grade fungi common in Asian food cultures as well as cranberry phenolic synergies through the addition of functional biphenyls such as ellagic acid and rosmarinic acid along with processed fruit extracts have helped to advance these concepts. These strategies could be further explored to enrich cranberry and cranberry products with functional phytochemicals and further improve their functionality for enhancing health benefits.