FRIDAY, May 30, 2003 (HealthDayNews) --
A cream derived from the common herb called self-heal helps prevents herpes in laboratory animals, says a study by researchers at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
The researchers extracted a lignin-carbohydrate compound from the self-heal plant (Prunella vulgaris) and put it in a cream they tested on mice and guinea pigs with experimental herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) and herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2).
The guinea pigs receiving the cream had a significant reduction in the number of skin lesions compared to guinea pigs that received no treatment. Mice receiving the cream also had a much better survival rate than mice that didn't get the cream treatment.
"The anti-HSV compound form P. vulgaris is a novel lignin-carbohydrate complex with potent activity against HSV-1 and HSV-2 and has a different anti-herpes mechanism than acyclovir, the current clinical anti-herpes drug," researcher Song Lee says in a news release.
"Given the high incidence of herpes infection and the emergence of acyclovir-resistant strains of herpes viruses, the Prunella lignin-carbohydrate complex may prove to be a useful new anti-herpes drug," Lee says.
Self-heal is commonly found in North American, China, Europe and the British Isles.
The study was presented at the recent meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Washington, D.C.
More information
Here's where you can learn more about herpes.
