Comparative Virucidal Activities of Essential Oils and Alcohol-Based Solutions against Enveloped Virus Surrogates: In...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Virology
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Alcohol (OH)-based disinfectants pose risks to human health and the environment.
• Essential oils (EOs) are FDA-Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) and possess antiviral properties.
• Developing safe and eco-friendly disinfectants is a critical public health need.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the virucidal efficacy of essential oils (EOs) as disinfectants against enveloped viruses.
• To compare the effectiveness of EO and alcohol (OH) solutions against DENV-2 and CHIKV.
• To investigate the molecular interactions between EO compounds and viral proteins.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative suspension test to assess virucidal activity.
• Testing various concentrations of EO and OH solutions.
• Molecular docking analyses to predict binding affinities of EO compounds to viral proteins.

Main Results:

• A solution of 12% EO + 10% OH achieved a >4.0 log10 TCID50 reduction (100%) of DENV-2 and CHIKV within 1 minute.
• 12% EO and 3% EO solutions without OH demonstrated significant virucidal activity after 10 and 30 minutes, respectively.
• Sesquiterpenes exhibited strong binding affinities to viral envelope proteins (DENV-2 E and CHIKV E1-E2-E3).

Conclusions:

• Essential oils demonstrate significant potential as effective and safe antiviral disinfectants.
• EOs can serve as an eco-friendly alternative to conventional alcohol-based disinfectants.
• Further research into EO-based disinfectants is warranted for public health applications.