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Topic
Thoughts about H1N1
Topic posted 9/1/09 by MAREYA@EAT CLEANER
653 Views, 7 Comments
Title:
Thoughts about H1N1
Summary:
Curious if anyone is getting a lot of questions about the effects of their products on H1N1.
Comments
Im not sure what you mean by "products" , foods, OTC drugs???
As a natural products consultant with a background in Herbs. I have been in several discussions with herbalists about what kinds of herbal formulas will be helpful to prevent and treat H1N1. I realize that this is a sticky subject because simply making such a claim with an herb would be calling it a drug. However it is clear that herbs have a clear edge over pharmaceuticals and OTCs in dealing with viruses.
There are several well documented herbs that have a good track records with flu and especially the Spanish flu from 1918. Now combine those with an immune stimulant and other herbs that benefit the respiratory system during illness and you have a workable formula. That might be a product that would actually have an "effect" on H1N1.
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Thanks for your response. We've created a line of food wash +wipes products and they are lab tested to kill over 99.9%+ Salmonella, E. coli and Staph. That said, I'm wondering what the effect would be on H1N1. Is Citric Acid or Salt associated with the kill efficacy?
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Marco,
Thanks for the interesting response. That herbs could have an effect on a flu virus is news to me - good news. : ) I'm going to share this info with our Food developers.
Greg
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Luckily, the influenza virus is one of the easier viruses to kill. It's basically an oily lipid envelop with genetic material inside. If you can disrupt or dry out the envelope, you can destroy the virus. It is very susceptible to surfactants/detergents, which is why hand washing is so important during flu season. It is also susceptible to alcohol-based hand sanitizers, as we've been hearing on the news, as well as products with high IPA/ethanol content.
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How about Citric Acid? Or Sea Salt? Do they have a kill effect?
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There are products with citric acid as their active that are efficacious against all manner of viruses, even some much more difficult to kill than influenza. So, yes, I would say citric acid can kill influenza. I've never worked with sea salt as an active before, but I imagine you could dry out the virus and kill it if the concentration of salt was high enough.
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Ohhh ok .. I didn't realize this was a food wash and wipe. Thanks for the clarification. From what i have read H1N1 can remain viable outside the body for hours to weeks depending on the substrate. The acid approach has resulted in conflicting data, however the consensus is that influenza viruses are mostly transmitted via airborne droplet. I agree with K. Carpenter that frequent hand washing with solutions that disrupt lipids such as surfactants, detergents and IPA/ Ethanol are the best solutions. Unfortunately the only way to prevent inhalation or membrane contact with a potentially an infected airborne droplet is a physical barrier, such as a facemask and glasses.
An excellent presentation on the matter is:
http://ec.europa.eu/food/animal/diseases/influenzaAH1N1/docs/EFSA_AHAW_BIOHAZ.pdf
Mareya, if you are interested in some excellent natural, food-grade Organic surfactants, I can help you.
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