HIV Treatment Via Geranium Extracts: Natural Way To Fight Infection, Inhibit Replication

German researchers have found that geranium extracts can inhibit HIV type 1 by preventing the virus from invading human cells, raising the possibility that the next big thing in AIDS prevention may be found in your own backyard.

The new study, which is published in the journal PLOS ONE, shows that the extracts from the geranium plant Pelargonium may represent a previously overlooked method of fighting HIV-1 with natural substances. “Global HIV-1 treatment would benefit greatly from safe herbal medicines with scientifically validated novel anti-HIV-1 activities,” lead author Dr. Ruth Brack-Werner and her colleagues at the German Research Center for Environmental Health in Munich wrote in the study.

“The root extract from the medicinal plant Pelargonium sidoides (PS) is licensed in Germany as the herbal medicine EPs®7630, with numerous clinical trials supporting its safety in humans,” they added. “Here we provide evidence from multiple cell culture experiments that PS extract displays potent anti-HIV-1 activity.”