Investigation of the Antiviral Activity of Ficus carica L. Latex against HSV-2

Ficus carica L. has been widely used in the treatment of many diseases in folk medicine for centuries. It has been reported to have many pharmacological properties. In this study, we aimed to investigate the antiviral activities of Ficus carica L. latex against HSV-2 and its synergistic effects with acyclovir. In order to determine the presence of antiviral activity of Ficus carica latex samples, different concentrations of latex (1024, 512, 256, 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1 μg/mL) were added into the culture medium. HSV-2 proliferation was detected by real-time PCR method. Acyclovir was selected as the control drug. Compared with acyclovir, Ficus carica effectively inhibits viral replication of HSV-2, although the antiviral activity of Ficus carica is statistically significantly lower than that of acyclovir. It has been determined that the antiviral activity of Ficus carica is increased due to the polysaccharide. The activity of Ficus carica against HSV-2 was confirmed by a significant decrease in the number of viral copies. It was determined that Ficus carica L. samples have important antiviral effects compared with acyclovir. In particular, the synergy produced by antiviral activity of Ficus carica and acyclovir combined had a stronger effect against HSV-2 than acyclovir alone.