Figure 1.

Aqueous extracts of Lamiaceae exhibit a concentration-dependent anti-HIV-1 activity on Sup-T1 T-cells. Upper panels (HIV-1 replication): HIV-1_NL4-3 stocks were exposed to the indicated concentrations of aqueous extracts from (A) sage, (B) peppermint, (C) lemon balm, or solvent (H₂O) for 1 h at 37°C. Subsequently, Sup-T1 cells were challenged overnight with the virus-extract suspension and washed the following day. HIV-1 replication was monitored by p24 ELISA and values determined from culture supernatants taken at day 5 post infection are shown. Lower panels (viability): In parallel, Sup-T1 cells were exposed to the identical extract concentrations overnight, washed, and analyzed for viability in a standard MTT viability assay. Each experiment was performed in triplicate, and 4–6 independent experiments were conducted (see also Table 1). Given are arithmetic means ± standard deviations (SD) from one experiment. The indicated IC₅₀ and CC₅₀ values were determined by using Prism software (GraphPad, San Diego, CA).