ABSTRACT

The emergence of virus strains resistant to commonly used anti-viral drugs is a growing problem worldwide, particularly in immunocompromised patients (Bacon et al., 2003; Morn and Thouvenot, 2003; Stranska et al., 2005). Interestingly, it was found that especially traditional medicine such as traditional Indian medicine (Ayurveda), traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), traditional Japanese medicine (Kampo medicine) as well as traditional European herbal medicine are promising sources for the development of new antiviral agents. In the last two decades, a large number of anti-viral screening experiments on medicinal plant extracts and plantderived secondary metabolites (e.g., anthraquinones, ¤avonoids, naphthodianthrones, polyphenolics) have been reported to exhibit potent anti-viral properties (Vlietinck and Vanden Berghe, 1991; Reichling, 1999; Jassim and Naji, 2003; Khan et al., 2005; Tolo et al., 2006; Schnitzler et al., 2007b, Reichling et al., 2009).