EFFECT OF THE SOIL TYPE OVER THE ANTIHERPES ACTIVITIES OF Teucrium chamaedrys

Soil composition is one of the most important factors determining the metabolism of the plant life and from that - the amount of the active molecules - influencing the antiviral activity of the extracts. Our study tries to quantify its influence over the antiviral effect of the plant Teucrium chamaedrys L. over the human pathogen human alphaherpes virus. To get wider scope, our specimens have been collected from eastern Rhodope Mountain, Rila mountain and Sofia region - getting in our specter of research both mountain and lowland climate and serpentine, silicate and calcareous soils. The most active extracts are - the chloroform soxhlet extract from the region of Dobromirtzi village - inactivating extracellular virions of HHV-2 up to 99,57% and methanol thermostat one from the same region with more than 99,99% activity. The influence over viral replication cycle is weak, with most active extract have selective index just 1,87. As a result of the conducted experiments we suggest that serpentine substrate may influence the antiviral activity of T. chamaedrys populations in comparison to non-serpentine populations. This underlines the need to control the origin of the medicinal plants when used to test for antiviral activities.