Willow Bark Tea May Cure What Ails You

Vaccinations are important, but they cannot deal with many of the newly emerging virus serotypes early enough to be effective without some help from natural remedies

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A newly published study reveals that hot willow bark extract shows broad-spectrum antiviral activities that have not been previously identified. The study, designed and carried out by a team of scientists based in Finland, found that hot willow bark extract — tea — not only helped combat an assortment of enveloped coronaviruses, which cause common seasonal colds as well as Covid-19, but surprisingly, but it was also effective against an assortment of non-enveloped enteroviruses, which cause infections such as flu and meningitis.

Currently, there are no clinically approved drugs that work against enteroviruses, so willow bark extract could provide promising new medications against these viruses.

Historically, the bark of some species of willow (Salix spp) trees has been used to treat inflammatory and arthritis-related conditions since ancient times. Salix bark extract contains salicin, which was discovered in 1828. Ten years later, it was used to create salicylic acid. In 1899, the drug firm Bayer further modified salicylic acid to create acetylsalicylic acid — aspirin.

“We need broadly acting and efficient tools to combat the virus load in our everyday life,” the study’s senior author, virologist Varpu Marjomäki, a professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Science at the University of Jyväskylä, said in a statement.

“Vaccinations are important, but they cannot deal with many of the newly emerging serotypes early enough to be effective on their own.”

Previously, Professor Marjomäki and a team of collaborators demonstrated that willow bark extract was highly effective against enteroviruses, such as those that cause polio and hepatitis A. This new study builds on that earlier research by establishing the effectiveness of Salix bark extract against yet more types of viruses with different physical structures to better understand the extract’s range of anti-viral activities, and to potentially identify its mechanism of action.

To produce the extracts tested in this study, the researchers harvested commercially grown willow branches, cut them into pieces, and froze them before grinding them up and adding hot water to make a tea. These extracts were then tested on cell samples against two strains of enteroviruses, Coxsackievirus A and B, and a seasonal cold virus as well as SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

Professor Marjomäki and collaborators used several assays to test how long it took Salix bark extracts to act on infected cells and to estimate how well the extract inhibited viral activity. Professor Marjomäki and collaborators also examined the viruses under a microscope to better visualize the mode of action of the Salix bark extract treatment.

Viruses can be enveloped or non-enveloped, meaning they either do or don’t have an outer lipid membrane. Non-enveloped viruses, such as enteroviruses, are typically more virulent than enveloped viruses like coronaviruses.

Professor Marjomäki and collaborators found that willow bark extract exhibited different mechanisms of action on different virus structural types. After treatment with the extract, the team observed that coronaviruses appeared to have been broken down by the extract, whereas the non-enveloped enteroviruses appeared unable to replicate inside cells.

“The extracts acted through distinct mechanisms against different viruses,” Professor Marjomäki reported. “But the extracts were equally effective in inhibiting the enveloped as well as non-enveloped viruses.”

Professor Marjomäki and collaborators also found that the willow bark extract appeared to act on the virus’ surface rather than at a particular stage of the viral replication cycle.

To identify which compound in the willow bark extract might be causing these antiviral effects, Professor Marjomäki and collaborators fractionated the extract and tested each fraction, as well as testing commercially prepared salixin extract and salixin powder. Of these, only the salixin extract showed antiviral activity, suggesting that the success of the willow bark extract most likely depends upon interactions between different bioactive compounds in the Salix bark extract.

In summary, this study found evidence that several bioactive compounds are present in willow bark extract that are medically promising antivirals, and they act in concert against a variety of viruses but their antiviral activity is destroyed when all of these as-yet unidentified compounds are not present together. More research, of course, is necessary to identify precisely what these compounds are and how they interact with each other as well as with viruses.

“We are presently continuing fractionations and bioactive molecule identification from willow bark extracts,” Professor Marjomäki stated. “This will give us a number of identified pure molecules which we can study in further detail. Also, we will study a larger number of viruses with purified components. Purified components will give us better opportunities to study their mechanisms of action.”

Source:

Dhanik Reshamwala, Sailee Shroff, Jaana Liimatainen, Jenni Tienaho, Mira Laajala, Petri Kilpeläinen, Anneli Viherä-Aarnio, Maarit Karonen, Tuula Jyske, and Varpu Marjomäki (2023). Willow (Salix spp.) bark hot water extracts inhibit both enveloped and non-enveloped viruses: study on its anti-coronavirus and anti-enterovirus activities, Frontiers in Microbiology | doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1249794

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