ABSTRACT
Acute diarrhea, especially in children, is a very common disease with worldwide distribution and with a significant public health impact. Rotaviruses have been recognized as the major agents of diarrhea in infants and young children in developed as well as developing countries. In Brazil, diarrhea is one of the principal causes of death, mainly in the infant population. To fight diarrhea, traditional Brazilian medicine uses a great variety of plants. In this work, 12 medicinal plant species were screened for simian (SA-11) and human (HCR3) rotaviruses inhibition in vitro. At non-cytotoxic concentrations, the extracts from Artocarpus integrifolia L. (Moraceae) bark (480 microg/ml) and Spondias lutea L. (Anacardiaceae) leaves (160 microg/ml) had antiviral activity against both viruses. They showed inhibition of 99.2% and 97%, respectively, for human rotavirus, and 96.4% and 96.2% for simian rotavirus. The extracts from Myristica fragrans Houtt (Myristicaceae) seeds (160 microg/ml) and Spongias lutea bark (40 microg/ml) inhibited human rotavirus (90% and 82.2% inhibition, respectively), whereas the extracts from Anacardium occidentale L. (Anacardiaceae) leaves (4 microg/ml) and Psidium guajava L. (Myrtaceae) leaves (8 microg/ml) showed activity only against simian rotavirus (82.2% and 93.8% inhibition, respectively). Our results indicate that the extracts of Artocarpus integrifolia, Myristica fragrans and Spongias lutea can be useful in the treatment of human diarrhea if the etiologic agent is a rotavirus.
Subject(s)
Antiviral Agents/pharmacology , Plant Extracts/pharmacology , Plants, Medicinal/chemistry , Rotavirus/drug effects , Animals , Antiviral Agents/chemistry , Antiviral Agents/isolation & purification , Artocarpus/chemistry , Brazil , Cell Line , Diarrhea/prevention & control , Diarrhea/virology , Diarrhea, Infantile/prevention & control , Diarrhea, Infantile/virology , Flowers/chemistry , Humans , Infant , Lythraceae/chemistry , Microbial Sensitivity Tests/methods , Plant Bark/chemistry , Plant Extracts/chemistry , Plant Extracts/isolation & purification , Plant Leaves/chemistry , Plants, Medicinal/classification , Rotavirus/growth & development , Rotavirus/metabolism , Rotavirus Infections/prevention & control , Rotavirus Infections/virology , Seeds/chemistryABSTRACT
Duzentos e trinta e uma amostras fecais,coletadas durante o periodo de julho de 1984 a julho de 1988, originarias de crianças de um mes a cinco anos de idade, acometidas de diarreia aguda, foram analisadas atraves de microscopia eletronica (ME), ensaio imunoenzimatico (IE), eletroforese em gel de poliacrilamida (EGPA) do RNA viral e aglutinaçao do latex (AL), a fim de se comparar a sensibilidade e a importancia das tecnicas usadas. Constatou-se que do total, 47 amostras (47/231, 20,3%)foram consideradas positivas para rotavirus por pelo menos uma tecnica, 32 amostras detectadas por ME (32/47,68,0%); 31 amostras por EGPA (31/47, 65,9%), 31 por IE (31/47,65,9%) e 30 amostras por AL (30/47,63,8%). Dezoito amostras (18/47,38,2%) foram positivas pelas quatro tecnicas, nove amostras (9/47,19,1%) positivas por tres tecnicas, sete amostras (7/47, 14,8%) positivas por duas tecnicas e 184 amostras (l84/231,79,6%) negativas pelas quatro tecnicas. A concordancia entre as quatro tecnicas foi de 87,4% (202/231). A analise estatistica (Teste de McNemar) entre os resultados dos testes em que se detectou maior diferença de positividade,i.e., ME x AL, mostrou nao haver diferença significativa na sensibilidade dos metodos utilizados (P>0,5).
