West Nile virus treatment with high-quality St. John’s wort

West Nile virus, although new to the US, is
well documented. The Centers for Disease Control
identifies it as a flavivirus, a member of the
togavirus family. It is closely related to yellow.
fever and dengue This is important because
The Togavirus family are enveloped viruses.
that is, they are covered in a lipid (fatty)
coating.

This is exciting, because it means that the virus is
accessible to treatment using St.
St. John’s Wort (SJW). Several studies have been done
on a variety of enveloped viruses, including
herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2, parainfluenza
vaccinia virus, cytomegalovirus and several
retroviruses including HIV1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10.

Non-enveloped viruses or “naked” viruses were
also studied for comparative purposes10,13.

SJW was a potent antiviral agent in a variety of
families of encapsulated viruses, but did not show
activity against naked viruses.

Unlike a vaccine that is specific for each
organism, SJW is active against encapsulated
viruses by a variety of mechanisms, including
light activation, DNA interference
transcription, impairing the assembly of intact
viral particles and lipophilic (fat-loving) particles
nature of the ring structures (the quinone and
phenolic groups)4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
These ring structures are critical to biology.
SJW activity.

From these results, it is reasonable to use high
quality, pharmaceutical grade SJW in the fight against
West Nile virus, as there are no
pharmaceutical agents.

Quality is critical as the level of hypericin
and pseudohypericin are
key. I can only recommend the SJW product.
produced by Medi-Herb, which is a pharmaceutical
home in Australia, joining the pharmaceutical
manufacturing standards. the product is
distributed by Standard Process through
alternative health practitioners, including
chiropractors, acupuncturists, and
SJW vets is quite unstable and the
the active ingredients break down on store shelves. Year
independent analysis of 3 products (all of which
were certified to contain 0.3% hypericin) were
proved to be highly variable, with a product of 25%
below the label claims. is critically important
that the phytochemical integrity of the whole
conserve the plant for maximum effectiveness.16

References:
1Andersen DO, Weber ND, Wood SG et al. antiviral
Res 1991; 16(2): 185-196.
2López-Bazzocchi I, Hudson JB, Towers GHN.
Photochem. Photopbiol. 1991; 54(1):95-98.
3Moraleda G, Wu TT, Jilbert AR et al. antiviral
Res 1993; 20:235-247.
4Tang J, Colacino JM, Larsen SH et al. antiviral
Res 1990; 13(6):313-325.
5Hudson JB, Harris L, Torres GHN. antiviral res
1993; 20(2): 173-178.
6 Lenard J, Rabson A, Vanderoef R. Proc Natl Acad
Sci USA 1993; 90(1):158-162.
7Degar S, Prince AM, Pascual D et al. AIDS Res Hum
Retroviruses 1992; 8(11):1929-1936.
8Carpenter S, Kraus GA. Photochem Photobiol 1991;
53(2):169-174.
9Lavie G, Valentine F, Levin B et al. national process
Acad Sci USA 1989; 86(15): 5963-5967.
10 Meruelo D, Lavie G, Lavie D et al. national process
Acad Sci USA 1988; 85(14): 5230-5234.
11 Kraus GA, Pratt D, Tossberg J et al. Biochemistry
Biophys Common Res 1990; 172(1): 149-153.
12Takahashi I, Nakanishi S, Kobayashi E et al.
Biochem Biophys Common Res 1989; 165 (3):
1207-1212.
13De Witte P, Agostinis P, Van Lint J et al.
Biochem Pharmacol 1993; 46(11): 1929-1936.
14 Panossian AG, Gabrielian E, Manvelian V et al.
Phytomed 1996; 3(1):19-28.
15Lavie G, Mazur Y, Lavie D et al. Transfusion
nineteen ninety five; 35(5):392-400.
16 Constantine GH, Karchesy J. Variations in
Hypericin concentrations in Hypericum perforatum
L. and commercial products. pharmacist
Biology 1998; 36(5):365-367.