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. 2019 Oct-Dec;11(4):285-291.

Anti-Influenza Virus Activity and Phenolic Content of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Peel Extract and Fractions

Mohammad-Taghi Moradi  1 , Ali Karimi  2 , Mehrdad Shahrani  2 , Leila Hashemi  3 , Mohammad-Saleh Ghaffari-Goosheh  2
Affiliations

Anti-Influenza Virus Activity and Phenolic Content of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Peel Extract and Fractions

Mohammad-Taghi Moradi et al. Avicenna J Med Biotechnol. 2019 Oct-Dec.

Abstract

Background: Influenza virus, associated with high level of morbidity and mortality, has been recently considered a public health concern while the choices for the control and treatment of the disease are limited. The present study was conducted to evaluate activity of pomegranate peel extract and its fractions against Influenza A virus in vitro .

Methods: In this research, ethyl alcohol extract of pomegranate peel was prepared and subjected to fractionation with different polarities. The potential in vitro anti-influenza A virus activity of the extract and fractions was assessed using Cytopathic Effect (CPE) reduction assay, Hemagglutinin Assay (HA), and 50% Tissue Culture Infectious Doses (TCID50) method in Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells.

Results: The crude pomegranate peel extract and its n-butanol and ethyl acetate fractions had the highest inhibitory effect against influenza A virus with IC50 value of 6.45, 6.07 and 5.6 μg/ml in MDCK cells, respectively. Our results also showed that, the production of virus was significantly reduced upon treatment with crude extract, n-butanol and ethyl acetate fractions in a dose-dependent manner (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Based on our results, the ethyl alcohol extract and its polar fractions of pomegranate peel can inhibit influenza A virus replication in vitro. Therefore, further characterization of its active ingredients and the mechanism of action should be carried out.

Keywords: Antiviral Agents; Pomegranate; Punica granatum L.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow chart for the extraction and fractionation of pomegranate peel
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Cytotoxicity of pomegranate peel extract and its fractions on MDCK cells. Confluent MDCK cells were exposed to different concentrations of crude extract and its fractions for 48 hr. Cytotoxi-city was measured in MTT assay; experiments were carried out in triplicate.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Reduction of influenza viral titers in the culture supernatants by the pomegranate peel extract and its more effective fractions. PR8-infected MDCK cells were incubated with different concentrations of the extract/fractions for 24 hr and the supernatants were used for TCID50 titration. The data are the mean values of three independent experiments (mean±SEM). p-values were calculated against virus control (untreated sample) using Kruskal-Wallis test.
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