Treatment for an existing HSV-1 Cold Sore using essential oils

January 29, 2004

Hello.

I had always heard that True (very expensive) was the best

treatment for HSV virii.

But recently I saw studies done on differnt oils:

Geranium sanguineum L. from Bulgaria

REF: Serkedjieva J, Ivancheva S., Antiherpes virus activity of

extracts from the medicinal plant Geranium sanguineum L., Institute

of Microbiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia.

And

Sandalwood oil Santalum album L

REF: Benencia F and Courreges M C., Antiviral Activity of Sandalwood

Oil Against Herpes Simplex Viruses-1 and-2. Phytomedicine 1999 (May);6

[2]:119-123.

But nothing but anectodal evidence on .

Does anyone know about any of these studies?

What does everyone else here use for the treatment of HSV-1, cold

sores on the lip.

NOTE: I already use L-Lysine for prevention during time that I KNOW I

will be stressed. My recent stress came suddenly.

Thank you for all your help, MJ

January 29, 2004

You should spend some time search MEDLINE.

I use the NLM's Gateway

http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/gw/Cmd

or

PubMed

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/

I searched Gateway for the search terms

HSV-1 essentail oil?

and got these hits:

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Virucidal activity of essential oils from aromatic plants of San ,

Argentina.

Garc¡a CC, Talarico L, Almeida N, Colombres S, Duschatzky C, Damonte

EB.

Phytother Res. 2003 Nov;17(9):1073-5.

Laboratorio de Virolog¡a, Departamento de Qu¡mica Biol¢gica, Facultad

de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad

Universitaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Essential oils obtained from eight aromatic plants of San

Province, Argentina, were screened for virucidal activity against

herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), Junin virus (JUNV) and dengue

virus type 2 (DEN-2). The most potent inhibition was observed with the

essential oil of Lippia junelliana and Lippia turbinata against JUNV

with virucidal concentration 50% (VC(50)) values in the range 14-20

ppm, whereas Aloysia gratissima, Heterotheca latifolia and Tessaria

absinthioides inhibited JUNV in the range 52-90 ppm. The virucidal

activity was time- and temperature-dependent. The essential oils of A.

gratissima, Artemisia douglasiana, Eupatorium patens and T.

absinthioides inactivated HSV-1 at 65-125 ppm. However, only A.

douglasiana and E. patens had any discernible effect on DEN-2

infectivity with VC(50) values of 60 and 150 ppm, respectively.

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The inhibitory effect of essential oils on herpes simplex virus type-1

replication in vitro.

Minami M, Kita M, Nakaya T, Yamamoto T, Kuriyama H, Imanishi J.

Microbiol Immunol. 2003;47(9):681-4.

Department of Microbiology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine,

Kyoto, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan.

The antiviral effect of 12 essential oils on herpes simplex virus

type-1 (HSV-1) replication was examined in vitro. The replication

ability of HSV-1 was suppressed by incubation of HSV-1 with 1%

essential oils at 4 C for 24 hr. Especially, lemongrass completely

inhibited the viral replication even at a concentration of 0.1%, and

its antiviral activity was dependent on the concentrations of the

essential oil. When Vero cells were treated with the essential oil

before or after viral adsorption, no antiviral activity was found,

which suggests that the antiviral activity of essential oils including

lemongrass may be due to the direct interaction with virions.

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Virucidal effect of peppermint oil on the enveloped viruses herpes

simplex virus type 1 and type 2 in vitro.

Schuhmacher A, Reichling J, Schnitzler P.

Phytomedicine. 2003;10(6-7):504-10.

Department of Virology, Hygiene Institute, Faculty of Medicine,

University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.

The virucidal effect of peppermint oil, the essential oil of Mentha

piperita, against herpes simplex virus was examined. The inhibitory

activity against herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and herpes simplex

virus type 2 (HSV-2) was tested in vitro on RC-37 cells using a plaque

reduction assay. The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of peppermint

oil for herpes simplex virus plaque formation was determined at 0.002%

and 0.0008% for HSV-1 and HSV-2, respectively. Peppermint oil exhibited

high levels of virucidal activity against HSV-1 and HSV-2 in viral

suspension tests. At noncytotoxic concentrations of the oil, plaque

formation was significantly reduced by 82% and 92% for HSV-1 and HSV-2,

respectively. Higher concentrations of peppermint oil reduced viral

titers of both herpesviruses by more than 90%. A clearly time-dependent

activity could be demonstrated, after 3 h of incubation of herpes

simplex virus with peppermint oil an antiviral activity of about 99%

could be demonstrated. In order to determine the mode of antiviral

action of the essential oil, peppermint oil was added at different

times to the cells or viruses during infection. Both herpesviruses were

significantly inhibited when herpes simplex virus was pretreated with

the essential oil prior to adsorption. These results indicate that

peppermint oil affected the virus before adsorption, but not after

penetration into the host cell. Thus this essential oil is capable to

exert a direct virucidal effect on HSV. Peppermint oil is also active

against an acyclovir resistant strain of HSV-1 (HSV-1-ACV(res)), plaque

formation was significantly reduced by 99%. Considering the lipophilic

nature of the oil which enables it to penetrate the skin, peppermint

oil might be suitable for topical therapeutic use as virucidal agent in

recurrent herpes infection.

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[Determination of the antibacterial and antiviral activity of the

essential oil from Minthostachys verticillata (Griseb.) Epling]

Primo V, Rovera M, Zanon S, Oliva M, Demo M, Daghero J, Sabini L.

Rev Argent Microbiol. 2001 Apr-Jun;33(2):113-7.

[Article in Spanish]

Departamento de Microbiolog¡a e Inmunolog¡a, Universidad Nacional de

R¡o Cuarto, Ruta Nacional No 36 km 601, 5800 R¡o Cuarto, Pcia. de

C¢rdoba, Argentina. valeriaprimo@...

The in vitro antiviral activity of the essential oil from Minthostachys

verticillata was investigated against herpes simplex virus type 1

(HSV-1) and pseudorabies virus (PrV). The viral inhibition was assayed

employing viral plaque reduction assay. The antiviral activity of the

essential oil specifically affects PrV and HSV-1 multiplication, since

it was found that non toxic effects on cells were observed at the

concentrations assayed. The therapeutic index values were 10.0 and 9.5

for HSV-1 and PrV, respectively. The antibacterial activity was studied

using a diffusion assay and the broth tube dilution method.

Gram-positive bacteria were more sensitive to inhibition by plant

essential oil than the gram-negative bacteria. The essential oil of M.

verticillata was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) technique. Of the

six components identified in the volatile oil, pulegone (44.56%) and

menthone (39.51%) were the major constituents. The antimicrobial

activity can be explained to some extent by the presence of pulegone.

Results suggest that further investigations concerning the isolation of

the substance responsible for the antimicrobial activity and an effort

to define the mechanisms of action are warranted.

---------------------------------

In vitro effect of oral antiseptics on human immunodeficiency virus-1

and herpes simplex virus type 1.

Baqui AA, Kelley JI, Jabra-Rizk MA, Depaola LG, Falkler WA, Meiller TF.

J Clin Periodontol. 2001 Jul;28(7):610-6.

Department of Oral Medicine and OCBS,Dental School, University of

land, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. tfm001@...

AIM: The antiviral effectiveness of widely used commercial mouthrinses

has not been well studied. A project was undertaken to evaluate and

compare the in vitro antiviral effectiveness of essential

oil-containing mouthrinses (LA & TLA) and chlorhexidine mouthrinses (PX

& CHX) on 2 different enveloped viruses, human immunodeficiency virus

(HIV-1) and Herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) McIntyre strain. METHOD:

HIV-1(89.6) (1x10(5)/ml) and HSV-1 (1x10(6)/ml) in RPMI-1640 medium

were treated with two commercially available forms of LA & TLA (tartar

control LA), and 2 formulations of chlorhexidine [(PX), 0.12%

chlorhexidine & (CHX), 0.2% chlorhexidine] for 30 sec. The antiviral

effect was estimated by inhibition of the syncytia formation or the

cytopathic effect (CPE) for HIV-1 on MT-2 cells and by inhibition of

the plaque formation for HSV-1 on Vero cell monolayers. RESULTS:

Undiluted LA, TLA, PX and CHX completely inhibited both HIV-189.6 and

HSV-1 McIntyre strain. PX and CHX inhibited HIV-1 up to 1:4 dilution,

whereas, LA and TLA inhibited HSV-1 up to 1:2 dilution. The antiviral

effects of LA and TLA were found to be similar and also the antiviral

effect of PX and CHX were also found to be comparable. CONCLUSIONS: The

methods used in this investigation allow easy and reproducible

evaluations of antiviral efficacy. The anti-HIV-1 and anti-HSV-1

effects of LA, TLA, PX and CHX as evidenced in our in vitro study

suggest that we should investigate potential in vivo effects during the

use of essential oil-containing or chlorhexidine containing products

when used by patients as mouthrinses. If the clinical studies confirm

the in vitro data, pre-procedural use by clinicians may be beneficial

in reducing viral contamination of bio-aerosols during the delivery of

dental care.

---------------------------------

Antiviral activity of Australian tea tree oil and eucalyptus oil

against herpes simplex virus in cell culture.

Schnitzler P, Sch”n K, Reichling J.

Pharmazie. 2001 Apr;56(4):343-7.

Department of Virology, Hygiene Institute, University of Heidelberg,

Germany.

The antiviral effect of Australian tea tree oil (TTO) and eucalyptus

oil (EUO) against herpes simplex virus was examined. Cytotoxicity of

TTO and EUO was evaluated in a standard neutral red dye uptake assay.

Toxicity of TTO and EUO was moderate for RC-37 cells and approached 50%

(TC50) at concentrations of 0.006% and 0.03%, respectively. Antiviral

activity of TTO and EUO against herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and

herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) was tested in vitro on RC-37 cells

using a plaque reduction assay. The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50)

of TTO for herpes simplex virus plaque formation was 0.0009% and

0.0008% and the IC50 of EUO was determined at 0.009% and 0.008% for

HSV-1 and HSV-2, respectively. Australian tea tree oil exhibited high

levels of virucidal activity against HSV-1 and HSV-2 in viral

suspension tests. At noncytotoxic concentrations of TTO plaque

formation was reduced by 98.2% and 93.0% for HSV-1 and HSV-2,

respectively. Noncytotoxic concentrations of EUO reduced virus titers

by 57.9% for HSV-1 and 75.4% for HSV-2. Virus titers were reduced

significantly with TTO, whereas EUO exhibited distinct but less

antiviral activity. In order to determine the mode of antiviral action

of both essential oils, either cells were pretreated before viral

infection or viruses were incubated with TTO or EUO before infection,

during adsorption or after penetration into the host cells. Plaque

formation was clearly reduced, when herpes simplex virus was pretreated

with the essential oils prior to adsorption. These results indicate

that TTO and EUO affect the virus before or during adsorption, but not

after penetration into the host cell. Thus TTO and EUO are capable to

exert a direct antiviral effect on HSV. Although the active antiherpes

components of Australian tea tree and eucalyptus oil are not yet known,

their possible application as antiviral agents in recurrent herpes

infection is promising.

---------------------------------

Inactivation of HSV-1 and HSV-2 and prevention of cell-to-cell virus

spread by Santolina insularis essential oil.

De Logu A, Loy G, Pellerano ML, Bonsignore L, Schivo ML.

Antiviral Res. 2000 Dec;48(3):177-85.

Dipartimento di Scienze Chirurgiche e Trapianti d'Organo, Sezione di

Microbiologia e Virologia, Universit… di Cagliari, Via Palabanda 14,

09123, Cagliari, Italy. adelogu@...

The essential oil obtained in toto from Santolina insularis was

investigated for its antiviral activity on herpes simplex type 1

(HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) in vitro. The IC(50) values, determined by

plaque reduction assays, were 0.88 and 0.7 microg/ml for HSV-1 and

HSV-2, respectively, while the CC(50) determined by the MTT test on

Vero cells was 112 microg/ml, indicating a CC(50)/IC(50) ratio of 127

for HSV-1 and 160 for HSV-2. Results obtained by plaque reduction

assays also indicated that the antiviral activity of S. insularis was

principally due to direct virucidal effects. Antiviral activity against

HSV-1 and HSV-2 was not observed in a post-attachment assay, and

attachment assays indicated that virus adsorption was not inhibited. Up

to 80% inhibition of HSV-1 was achieved at the concentration of 40

microg/ml by yield reduction assay. Furthermore, reduction of plaque

formation assays also showed that S. insularis essential oil inhibits

cell-to-cell transmission of both HSV-1 and HSV-2.

---------------------------------

Antiviral activity of sandalwood oil against herpes simplex viruses-1

and -2.

Benencia F, CourrŠges MC.

Phytomedicine. 1999 May;6(2):119-23.

Department of Biological Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of

Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Sandalwood oil, the essential oil of Santalum album L., was tested for

in vitro antiviral activity against Herpes simplex viruses-1 and -2. It

was found that the replication of these viruses was inhibited in the

presence of the oil. This effect was dose-dependent and more pronounced

against HSV-1. A slight diminution of the effect was observed at higher

multiplicity of infections. The oil was not virucidal and showed no

cytotoxicity at the concentrations tested.

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I think if you spent some time searching using alternative search

terms.

Maurice

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Maurice O. Hevey

Convergent Cosmetics, Inc.

http://www.ConvergentCosmetics.com

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January 29, 2004