Research Demonstrates that HerbalScience's Proprietary Elderberry Extract Prevents in Vitro H1N1 Influenza...( NAPLES Fla. Sept. 1...),Health

NAPLES, Fla., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent research study has given new scientific evidence to the long-held empirical belief that elderberries possess antiviral activities. The research involved a specific, reproducible elderberry extract developed by HerbalScience Group LLC, and succeeded in identifying key chemical components of the extract that inhibited in vitro infection and were shown to bind directly to Human Influenza A (H1N1) virus particles. The binding blocked the ability of the viruses to enter host cells, and thereby effectively preventing H1N1 infection in vitro.

An article detailing the study, titled "Elderberry flavonoids bind to and prevent H1N1 infection in vitro," has been published in the peer-review scientific journal Phytochemistry. The article's authors are scientists affiliated with HerbalScience Group, a Naples, Florida, and Singapore-based company dedicated to applying advanced science and technology to the production of botanical drugs and nutraceuticals, and with the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida.

The research results are notable not only because they identified and characterized two specific flavonoids (plant nutrients that are beneficial to health) that are the major contributors to the anti-influenza activity of the elderberry extract, but also verified how the flavonoids provide that benefit, via direct binding to H1N1 virus particles and blocking the virus from infecting host cells.

"Our studies on HerbalScience's proprietary elderberry extract have enabled us to identify the key bioactives that contribute to its antiviral activity, and begin to understand how the mixture of natural chemistries present in elderberry functions," said Randall S. Alberte, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of HerbalScience Group and one of the authors of the published study. "Using methods, technolo
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