Antiviral activities of extracts and selected pure constituents of Ocimum basilicum

  1. Lien-Chai Chiang1,
  2. Lean-Teik Ng4,
  3. Pei-Win Cheng1,
  4. Win Chiang2,
  5. Chun-Ching Lin3

Article first published online: 19 SEP 2005

DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1681.2005.04270.x

Issue

Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology

Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology

Volume 32, Issue 10, pages 811–816, October 2005

Additional Information

How to Cite

Chiang, L.-C., Ng, L.-T., Cheng, P.-W., Chiang, W. and Lin, C.-C. (2005), Antiviral activities of extracts and selected pure constituents of Ocimum basilicum. Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology, 32: 811–816. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1681.2005.04270.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Microbiology,

  2. 2

    Department of Clinical Pathology and

  3. 3

    Graduate Institute of Natural Products, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung and

  4. 4

    Department of Biotechnology, Tajen Institute of Technology, Pingtung, Taiwan

* Professor Chun-Ching Lin, Graduate Institute of Natural Products, Kaohsiung Medical University 100 Shih-Chuan 1st Road, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan. Email: aalin@ms24.hinet.net

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 19 SEP 2005
  2. Article first published online: 19 SEP 2005
  3. Received 13 December 2004; revision 8 April 2005; accepted 10 May 2005.

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (149K)

Keywords:

  • adenoviruses;
  • coxsackievirus;
  • enterovirus 71;
  • hepatitis B virus;
  • Ocimum basilicum

SUMMARY

1. Ocimum basilicum (OB), also known as sweet basil, is a well known medicinal herb in traditional Chinese medicine preparations. In the present study, extracts and purified components of OB were used to identify possible antiviral activities against DNA viruses (herpes viruses (HSV), adenoviruses (ADV) and hepatitis B virus) and RNA viruses (coxsackievirus B1 (CVB1) and enterovirus 71 (EV71)).

2. The results show that crude aqueous and ethanolic extracts of OB and selected purified components, namely apigenin, linalool and ursolic acid, exhibit a broad spectrum of antiviral activity. Of these compounds, ursolic acid showed the strongest activity against HSV-1 (EC50 = 6.6 mg/L; selectivity index (SI) = 15.2), ADV-8 (EC50 = 4.2 mg/L; SI = 23.8), CVB1 (EC50 = 0.4 mg/L; SI = 251.3) and EV71 (EC50 = 0.5 mg/L; SI = 201), whereas apigenin showed the highest activity against HSV-2 (EC50 = 9.7 mg/L; SI = 6.2), ADV-3 (EC50 = 11.1 mg/L; SI = 5.4), hepatitis B surface antigen (EC50 = 7.1 mg/L; SI = 2.3) and hepatitis B e antigen (EC50 = 12.8 mg/L; SI = 1.3) and linalool showed strongest activity against AVD-II (EC50 = 16.9 mg/L; SI = 10.5).

3. No activity was noted for carvone, cineole, β-caryophyllene, farnesol, fenchone, geraniol, β-myrcene and α-thujone.

4. The action of ursolic acid against CVB1 and EV71 was found to occur during the infection process and the replication phase.

5. With SI values greater than 200, the potential use of ursolic acid for treating infection with CVB1 and EV71 merits further investigation.

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (149K)