An in vitro and in silico Antiviral Evaluation on Phytochemicals from the Leaves of Punica granatum L., and Punicalagin Against Human Herpes Virus-3

The plant Punica granatum L., holds tremendous medicinal properties. The purpose of this research work is to isolate the phytochemicals from the leaves of Punica granatum L., and evaluate its antiviral efficacy under in vitro conditions against the clinical isolates of Human Herpes Virus-3. The phytochemicals were isolated chromatographically and their structures were defined through spectrophotometry. The antiviral activity was performed through post incubation assay and the selectivity index was calculated. Punicalagin, a major phytochemical present in the fruit rind of Punica granatum L., was commercially available and the antiviral potential against the HHV-3 was assessed in parallel for comparison. The antiviral results found that among the isolated leaf phytochemicals, Quercetin-3-O-glucoside and 4-isopropyl -2- methoxy-1-methyl benzene inhibited the HHV-3 induced CPE in post incubation assay. The active leaf phytochemicals and punicalagin were further proceeded to track down the actual inhibition mechanism through time of study antiviral procedures. The observed in vitro antiviral results were found to be consistent with the in silico docking analysis of active leaf phytochemicals and punicalagin with the HHV-3 protease in autodock software. Therefore, the present antiviral study inferred that the phytochemicals of Punica granatum L., inhibited the late events in the replication of HHV-3.