* Herbal Emodin, The Bioactive Ingredient That Treats Herpes Simplex Virus Infection

By Kyle J. Norton

Herbal Cascara Sagrada containing major bioactive compound Emodin may be considered as a functional herb that inhibits diseases caused by infection of Herpes simplex virus, some scientists found.

Herpes simplex virus 1 and 2, the 2 members of the herpersvirus family, also are best known as human herpesvirus 1 and 2.

The classification of the virus are based on their likelihood to cause infection. According WHO(5), in expression of conventional medicine, there is no cure of the diseases and both HSV-1 and HSV-2 infections are lifelong.

* HSV-1 is mainly transmitted by oral-to-oral contact such as oral herpes.

* HSV-2 is a sexually transmitted infection.

However, both HSV-1 and HSV-2 can cause genital herpes.

According to statistic, approximately 3.7 billion people under age 50 (67%) are infected by HSV-1 and  417 million people aged 15-49 (11%) are infected by HSV-2 globally. 

Some patients infected by the virus do not experience any symptoms, however, some may affect by symptoms of painful blisters or ulcers at the site of infection.

The virus are very contagious in the presence of symptoms but they can also transmitt to other from virus carriers who experience no symptoms at all. 

Some researchers suggested that risk of HIV infection is strongly associated to patients who are infected by with HSV-2 with or without symptoms.

The study of risk factors of HSV-1 and 2  

* (HSV-1) By the University of Bielefeld includes coitus experience, oral lesion, seropositivity and a higher level of perceived stress. And according to the returned questionnaire from participants, most lifestyle, gender or age are not risk factors with drinking alcohol was found to be a protective factor(3). 

* (HSV-2) By the University of Washington, include, seropositivity (include female gender), race (black), history of sexually transmitted infections, increasing numbers of sexual partners, sexual contact with commercial sex workers and low socio-economic status or level of education. 

Particularly, age is considered as a related risk factors as it, likely reflects the cumulative number of sex partners, age of initiation of sexual activity, and duration of sexual activity as well as chronice nature of HSV-2 infection"(4). 

Conventional medicine used for treatment of herpes simplex virus may be effective but inducing serious side effects of nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, digestive discomforts, headache, dizziness. fatigue,....  joint and muscle aches. In serious case, the medicine may cause visual changes.

Cascara sagrada is a species of buckthorn, genus Rhamnus, belongings to the family Rhamnaceae, native to western North America.

The herbal medicine bark has been used in traditional medicine for gastrointestinal support, thought its laxative and natural cleansing,

The chemical ingredients
Beside the main compound of anthraquinones, otyher compounds include anthraquinone glycosides, (emodin, frangulin, iso-emodin, aloe-emodin, and chrysophanol), rhein, aloin, malic acid, tannic acid, cascarosides A, B, C, and D,...... and hydroxy anthracene derivatives (HAD).

Emodin, the major component found in many herbs including ascara Sagrada, in the study against HSV infection exerted a significant effect in inhibited the replication of HSV-1 and HSV-2 in cell culture at the concentration of 50 μg/ml with antiviral index of 2.07 and 3.53, respectively(1).
In animal model, treatment of emodin increased the survival rate of HSV-infected mice, prolonged survival time(1).

After additional analysis of the experiment Dr. Xiong HR, the lead author suggested, injection of emodin expressed a higher efficacy in eliminated the virus from brain, heart, liver and ganglion, in compared to the viral controls.

According to the differentiation of the China Medical University, application of emodin not only demonstrated a strong apoptotic activity in HSV cell cycle arrest, but also reduced the plaque formation with an EC(50) of 21.5+/-4.4 muM(2).

Virus plaque formation according to plaque reduction assay is a measurement of  plaque that the spread of progeny viruses released by individually infected cells is restricted to neighboring cells(7).

The Immunohistochemical staining using the anti-nucleocapsid protein antibody also demonstrated that emodin inhibited HSV infection through induced the accumulation of viral nucleocapsids (which refer to the protein coat (capsid) and the nucleic acid) in the nucleus in a dose-dependent manner(2).

More over, emodin also inhibited the yields of HSV-1 via the suppression of a novel target, UL12, a HSV-1 gene which plays an important role in processing viral DNA intermediates for survival by promoting production.

The findings suggested that herbal Cascara Sagrada process anti herpes simplex virus potential through cell cycle arrest and disrupted viral DNA which promotes reduplication.

However, further data collection on large example size and multi centers studies performed with human consumption of the whole food during the course of the disease will be necessary to complete the picture of Cascara Sagrada anti Herpes simplex virus possibilities.

Natural Medicine for Fatty Liver And Obesity Reversal - The Revolutionary Findings To Achieve Optimal Health And Loose Weight

Ovarian Cysts And PCOS Elimination
Holistic System In Existence That Will Show You How To
Permanently Eliminate All Types of Ovarian Cysts Within 2 Months

Back to Kyle J. Norton Home page http://kylejnorton.blogspot.ca

Kyle J. Norton, Master of Nutrition
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published on line, including world wide health, ezine articles, article base, healthblogs, selfgrowth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bio science, ISSN 0975-6299.
References
(1) The effect of emodin, an anthraquinone derivative extracted from the roots of Rheum tanguticum, against herpes simplex virus in vitro and in vivo by Xiong HR, Luo J, Hou W, Xiao H, Yang ZQ.(PubMed)
(2) Emodin is a novel alkaline nuclease inhibitor that suppresses herpes simplex virus type 1 yields in cell cultures by Hsiang CY, Ho TY.(PubMed)
(3) Herpes simplex virus type 2 transmission: risk factors and virus shedding by Wald A(PubMed)
(4) Risk factors of herpes simplex type 1 (HSV-1) infection and lifestyle factors associated with HSV-1 manifestations by Stock C1, Guillén-Grima F, de Mendoza JH, Marin-Fernandez B, Aguinaga-Ontoso I, Krämer A(PubMed)
(5) Herpes simplex virus, Key Fact by WHO
(6) Now playing: Viral plaque formation by Virology Blog