Abstract
Throughout human history, the human-beings have been used different types of plants as antimicrobial agents in fight against infectious diseases. Influenza virus is one of the most common causes of respiratory infection and transmitted through direct contact with flu infected individuals and contaminated substances or droplets. In the current study, both oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions with hydroalcoholic extract of eucalyptus leaves (OLHE) were developed and their antiviral efficiency was evaluated. To doing so, Madin-Darbey Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells were treated with effective minimal cytotoxic concentration of the formulated emulsions. The treated cells were then infected with 50% cell culture infectious dose (100 CCID50) of the A/H1N1 virus (the swine flu). The viral titers were measured by hemagglutination (HA) and cell culture infectious dose 50% (CCID50) assays. Also, to check the virus binding inhibition via the formulated extract, the viruses were incubated with the formulated extracts. Our study showed that the oil-in-water emulsions formulated with 2% eucalyptus leaves extract inhibited virus replication completely when the cells were infected by 100 CCID50 and decreased HA titer up to four fold. Therefore, this formulation, may hold promising application to prevent influenza virus transmission through direct contact among children and passengers.
Highlights
More than 30,000 species of plants have been used in traditional medicines
Developing new anti-influenza emulsion based herbal agent can play a key role in decreasing influenza virus direct or indirect contacts transmission [10]
In contrast to spread through direct contact, host-to-host spread by way of respiratory droplets is severely sensitive to both temperature (30 °C) and relative humidity [18]
Summary
More than 30,000 species of plants have been used in traditional medicines. But, this is only a small proportion of the plants in the world that have been assessed for potential pharmaceutical usage. Nature is still fertile and full of different types of plants having an antiviral effect and each area possess its own distinct variety of plants which are not obtainable in another place around the world which can exploit to viral infections [4]. Ideal formulations for local administration of an active herbal extract are creams and lotions majorly oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions which spread on the skin without any detectable residue and adhere to the treated area without being sticky [7]. We evaluated the antiviral activity of hydroalcoholic extract of eucalyptus and tow type of oil-in-water (o/w) and water-in-oil (w/o) emulsions formulated with hydroalcoholic extract of eucalyptus on replication and binding of influenza virus
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