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"Prunella vulgaris [also known as self-heal] is a perennial plant commonly found in China, the British Isles, Europe, and North America. In herbal literature, P. vulgaris has been described as a hot water infusion to treat sores in the mouth and throat, as an astringent for internal and external purposes, as a crude anti-cancer drug, and as a herbal remedy to lower high blood pressure," says Song Lee, one of the researchers on the study.

Lee and his colleagues extracted a lignin-carbohydrate compound from the plant, which was incorporated into a topical cream and tested on mice and guinea pigs with experimental herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) and herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) infections. Guinea pigs receiving the lignin-carbohydrate complex cream treatment showed a significant reduction in skin lesions compared to those that received no treatment. Mice receiving the lignin-carbohydrate complex cream treatment showed a significant increase in survival rate compared to animals that received no treatment.

"The anti-HSV compound from 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," says Lee. "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."

This release is a summary of a presentation from the 103rd General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, May 18-22, 2003, in Washington, DC. Additional information on these and other presentations at the 103rd ASM General Meeting can be found online at http://www.asm.org/Media/index.asp?bid=17053.