Antiviral Natural Products and Herbal Medicines

Viral infections play an important role in human diseases, and recent outbreaks in the advent of globalization and ease of travel have underscored their prevention as a critical issue in safeguarding public health. Despite the progress made in immunization and drug development, many viruses lack pre...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lin, Liang-Tzung, Hsu, Wen-Chan, Lin, Chun-Ching
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd 2014
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4032839/
Description
Summary:Viral infections play an important role in human diseases, and recent outbreaks in the advent of globalization and ease of travel have underscored their prevention as a critical issue in safeguarding public health. Despite the progress made in immunization and drug development, many viruses lack preventive vaccines and efficient antiviral therapies, which are often beset by the generation of viral escape mutants. Thus, identifying novel antiviral drugs is of critical importance and natural products are an excellent source for such discoveries. In this mini-review, we summarize the antiviral effects reported for several natural products and herbal medicines.