Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluation antiviral activities of the extracts from the seed, fruit skin and aerial parts of ten registered varieties Cicer arietinum (Chickpea) against Herpes simplex type 1 (HSV-1) and Parainfluenza-3 (PI-3) viruses. Madin-Darby Bovine Kidney and Vero cell lines were employed for antiviral assessment of the Citer arientinum L. extracts, in which acyclovir for HSV-1 and oseltamivir for PI-3 were tested as reference drugs. This is the first report showing that C. arietinum seed extracts of Cse-5 possesses significant antiviral activity both of DNA (32 - 4 µg ml^-1) and RNA (32 - 16 µg ml^-1) viruses compared to the fruit skin and aerial part extracts as well as the controls.  Besides, the extracts of fruit skin (Cfs-4) and aerial parts (Cap-5) showed remarkable activity against DNA viruses at 32 - 1 µg ml^-1.

Key words: Antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral activity, Cicer arietinum, chickpea.