Antiviral Activities of Phyllantus Amarus that is Found Locally in Nigeria against hepatitis B virus in-vitro

Viral infections and diseases are global problems. According to a WHO report published, three to five million people have been found to be chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) virtually each year globally. Since some viruses mutate very quickly, developing antiviral drugs can be a daunting task. Moreover, currently used synthetic drugs are toxic to the liver and are associated with side effects and numerous adverse drug reactions. Therefore, there is a need to search for complementary alternative natural remedies that have low toxicity, efficacious, safe, a new mechanism of action, and no major side effects. Phyllanthus plants have traditionally been reportedly used to treat viral hepatitis and liver damage in many tropical and subtropical countries worldwide. In this study, hence the objectives of this paper were to determine the antiviral activities of Phyllantus amarus that is locally found in Nigeria against HBV in vitro. Standard analytical methods were used to assay phytochemical screenings, antioxidant studies and identification of bioactive compounds using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) respectively. The extract was found to contain phenol,saponin, tannin, alkaloid and flavonoid with a significant high quantity of tannin. The antioxidants, ABTS, FRAP, NO and DPPH had high scavenging capabilities against Butylated Hydroxy Toluene (BTH). A corrilagen had high intensity (highest peak) with hypophyllantin having highest retention values, other bioactive compounds identified are; gallic, allagic, quercetin and phyllantin. It is against this background, this study established that Phyllantus amarus has potential antiviral properties considering the identified bioactive compounds.