Revisiting the therapeutic potential of homeopathic medicine Rhus Tox for herpes simplex virus and inflammatory conditions

Mohini D Shinde; Sheetal A Patil; Anupam Mukherjee; Vijay Nema

doi:10.1016/j.jaim.2023.100739

Revisiting the therapeutic potential of homeopathic medicine Rhus Tox for herpes simplex virus and inflammatory conditions

J Ayurveda Integr Med. 2023 Jul-Aug;14(4):100739. doi: 10.1016/j.jaim.2023.100739. Epub 2023 Jul 6.

Authors

Mohini D Shinde¹, Sheetal A Patil¹, Anupam Mukherjee², Vijay Nema³

Affiliations

¹ Homeopathic Materia Medica Department, Bharti Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University), Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Dept. of Postgraduate & Research Centre, Pune-Satara Road, Dhankawadi, Pune, 411043, India.
² ICMR-National AIDS Research Institute, 73 G MIDC Bhosari, Pune, India.
³ ICMR-National AIDS Research Institute, 73 G MIDC Bhosari, Pune, India. Electronic address: dr.vijaynema@gmail.com.

Abstract

Background: Herpes simplex virus type-1 and type-2 cause a viral disease named Herpes. Genital herpes is mainly caused by HSV-2 with symptoms of painful and itchy blisters on the vagina, cervix, buttocks, anus, penis, or inner thighs with blisters that rupture and convert into sores. The homeopathic remedy Rhus Tox has been widely used to treat herpes and has shown invitro anti-inflammatory effects in previous studies.

Purpose: The presented review focuses on relapses and harmful effects caused by acyclovir in modern medicine and the probable antiherpetic activity of Rhus Tox on HSV infection based on its pathophysiology, preclinical findings, on primary cultured mouse chondrocytes, mouse cell line MC3T3e1 and a comparative study of Natrum Mur with Rhus Tox on HSV infection.

Study design: The design of the study focuses mainly on the descriptive data available in various literature articles.

Method: Databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, Medline and ScienceDirect were used to search the articles. Articles are selected from 1994 to 2022 focusing solely on the competence of Rhus Tox against herpes. Keywords used for the study are antiviral, Herpes, Rhus Tox, in vitro and homeopathy.

Results: The review includes fifteen articles, including 4 full-text articles on HSV, 6 in vitro studies of homeopathic compounds performed on the herpes virus, and 5 articles based on the pathophysiology and effects of Rhus tox. The review article proposes the anti-inflammatory and antiviral action of the homeopathic remedy Rhus Tox which can be used in crisis conditions when the physician doubts the simillimum, as it prevents further outbreaks of HSV infection.

Conclusion: The homeopathic medicine Rhus Tox has no cytotoxicity observed under in vitro conditions and can be used to treat herpes infection. Further studies are needed to confirm the results under in vitro and in vivo conditions as well as in clinical trials.

Keywords: Antiviral; Herpes simplex virus; Homeopathy; In vitro; Rhus tox.

Publication types

Review