Plant Component To Suppress HIV reproduction

The Plant Justicia gendarussa, grows in Eastern Asia, has a compound that is able to suppress HIV-virus reproduction and it even shows much more efficiency than azidothymidine, which is always used in combination with other drugs.

The study was lead at the University of Illinois College of Medicine team; the team found a chemical plant component, that managed to suppress the reverse transcriptase action quite effective in the early stages of HIV.  

Rong also noted in the study that “If we can make the drug in the lab, we don't need to establish farms to grow and harvest the plant, which requires significant financial investment, not to mention it has an environmental impact. But, "Patentiflorin A represents a novel anti-HIV agent that can be added to the current anti-HIV drug cocktail regimens to increase suppression of the virus and prevention of AIDS." - said Lijun Rong, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine.