Extraction of Proteases from Medicinal Plants and their Potential as Anti-Viral Targets

Medicinal plants especially leaves are used in traditional medicine for rapid anti-viral therapy against infectious diseases. Protease, a potential candidate in medicinal plants is not so for studied in leaves. So an attempt was made to determine the protease activity of various medicinal plants especially leaves. Buffers of different pH range were used for extraction of the leaves to identify the best buffer for extraction of protease. Firstly, protein from fresh plant leaves of these medicinal plants were determined and then evaluated its protease activity using crude enzyme of protein (leaves) against specific protein antigen i.e. Bovine serum albumin (BSA). Thereafter, exposure of these proteases (acid or basic) on virally infected human whole blood samples determined through flow cytometry. The results showed that protease at particular pH of PBS buffer range of these medicinal plant leaves on virally infected human whole blood samples showed anti-viral activity.