ABSTRACT
The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a result of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection which subsequently leads to significant suppression of immune functions. AIDS is an unprecedented threat to nations as well as to global health1,2. Approximately 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS. In 2004 alone, an estimated 5 million people worldwide were newly infected with HIV – about 14 000 each day3. Therefore, effective therapies to treat AIDS are urgently needed. In order to combat HIV, a colossal amount of money and manpower has been dedicated to searching for compounds that can be developed as therapeutic agents. In the past two decades, several chemical antiHIV agents have been developed. The current strategy for the treatment of HIV infection is called highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and is based on cocktails of drugs that are currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, besides the high cost, there are adverse effects and limitations associated with using chemotherapy for the treatment of HIV infection4. Herbal medicines are frequently used as an alternative medical therapy by HIV-positive individuals and AIDS patients. The aim of this chapter is to summarize research findings for herbal medicines that are endowed with the ability to inhibit HIV. In this chapter, we emphasize a Chinese herbal medicine, Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, and its identified components (i.e. baicalein and baicalin), which have been shown to inhibit infectivity and replication of HIV.
