J Ethnopharmacol. 2002 Feb; 79(2): 205-11.

Antiviral Chinese medicinal herbs against respiratory syncytial virus.

Ma SC, Du J, But PP, Deng XL, Zhang YW, Ooi VE, Xu HX, Lee SH, Lee SF.

Department of Biology and Institute of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.

Forty-four medicinal herbs were tested for antiviral activities against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) by means of the cytopathologic effect (CPE) assay. Twenty-seven of the 44 medicinal herbs showed potent or moderate antiviral activities against RSV with 50% inhibition concentration (IC(50)) ranging from 6.3 to 52.1 microg/ml, and with selectivity index (SI) ranging from 2.0 to 32.1. Further purification of the active extracts from Sophora flavescens Ait. and Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi led to the identification of anagyrine (2), oxymatrine (7), sophoranol (10), wogonin (12), and oroxylin A (13) as the potent anti-RSV components.