EFFECTIVE MEDICINAL PLANTS IN TREATING HEPATITIS B

Medicinal plants and natural products have many applications in the treatment of viral diseases, due to much lower side effects. Different types of hepatitis, especially hepatitis B, are of the viral diseases whose treatment using herbal medicines is currently of great interest due to the limited availability of effective chemical drugs and having numerous side effects. Due to the attention paid to herbal drugs and their importance for the treatment of hepatitis B, we conducted this review to take a look at the evidence regarding the action mechanisms of viruses, antiviral herbal remedies and various herbal anti-hepatitis drugs and their therapeutic mechanism published until 2017. To provide data for conducting this review, the most up-to-date electronic journals including those indexed in the Pubmed, Elsevier, Institute for Scientific Information, Google Scholar and Scientific Information Database databases and various books, has been used. There are several plants for the treatment of viral diseases, including hepatitis B, which prevent or decrease infection via various mechanisms. Medicinal plants counteract viruses by various mechanisms, but most of them including Ganoderma lucidum and Oenanthe javanica inhibit the transcription of hepatitis B virus in hepatocytes. Most of action mechanism of medical plants exert an antiviral effect through inhibiting the transcription of HBV in hepatocytes; the need to study effective medicinal plants for treating different types of hepatitis, including hepatitis B and their action mechanisms have been intensified more than ever before, which makes this subject even more important.