In Vitro Assessment of The Effects of Althaea Officinalis Root Extract on Rotavirus Multiplication

Medicinal plants possess a variety of beneficial characteristics without causing substantial adverse effects. Antimicrobial activity is one of the qualities, among many others, that have been identified. Althaea officinalis is an annual plant belonging to the Malvaceae family with therapeutic qualities in both the leaves and the roots. Specifically, the effects of Althaea officinalis root extract on rotavirus, which is the most prevalent cause of diarrhea among children, were investigated in this study.

The neutral red assay was used to determine whether the extract had any cytotoxic effects on MA-104 cells. TCID50 (50% cell culture infectious dose) and real-time PCR assays were used to investigate the impact of the extract at non-toxic dilutions on human rotavirus.

The maximum non-toxic dilution observed was 6/10 for the extract. When compared to the viral control, the lowest dilution of the extract (1/10) exhibited the highest inhibitory effect, resulting in a 1.03 logarithmic reduction in infectious rotavirus titer (p-value <0.001). Conversely, viral titers were higher at non-toxic dilutions (6/10) than the virus control, with the highest non-toxic dilution (6/10) linked with the most significant logarithmic increase in virus titer (2.54 logarithmic increase). The real-time PCR assay revealed a slight rise in Ct value compared to the viral controls when a dilution of 1/10 was used, similar to the TCID50 assay results.

Althaea officinalis at lower concentrations has mild antiviral effects on rotavirus, which can be due to the high resistance of rotavirus particle structure. However, using higher concentrations of this plant extract has enhanced virus replication.