ANTIVIRAL AND IMMUNOMODULATORY ACTIVITIES OF GENUS SAUSSUREA (ASTERACEAE): A REVIEW

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Pharmacy, Sphinx University, Assiut, Egypt

2 Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Sphinx University, Assiut, Egypt

Abstract

Asteraceae (Compositae) family has a crucial role in complementary and alternative medicine, with its plants known for their biological applications and high economic value. Since ancient times, these plants, such as those in the Saussurea genus, have been used for treating various diseases. Throughout the ages, Saussurea species have attracted attention for their therapeutic abilities and the importance of their many biological applications. Therefore, this is the first review with the aim of demonstrating the anti-viral activity and immunomodulator effects of Saussurea species. We investigated a wide range of literature across the biggest scientific databases to obtain the necessary information about the plants of Saussurea genus and their biological applications. We found that many Saussurea species have anti-viral activity against various viruses, including enveloped single-stranded RNA viruses, whether negative-sense or positive-sense, and also have anti-viral activity against enveloped double-stranded DNA viruses. We also found that the scientific papers indicated many immunomodulator agents that were isolated from different Saussurea species. These findings support the significance of Saussurea species as a potential source of medications for the immune system and as efficient antiviral drugs. These plants may possibly be useful in future virus-caused pandemics as a primitive and complementary method of disease management. Some of these plants need further investigations and studies to prove their antiviral activity clearly and, in addition, to discover more Saussurea species that likely possess antiviral or immunomodulatory properties.

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