SPAGYRIC HERBALISM

Could cardamom seeds be a potential source of antiviral treatment?

Researchers show that cardamom seed extract can enhance the production of antiviral proteins called type I interferons

Shinshu University

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The antiviral effects of cardamom seed (Elettaria cardamomum) extract through enhanced type I interferon production were revealed in this study.

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Credit: Abdullah Al Sufian Shuvo from Shinshu University, Japan

Plant-based materials have traditionally been used to treat a variety of viral infections. Now, researchers have found that cardamom seed extract, as well as its main bioactive ingredient, 1,8-cineole, can have potent antiviral effects through its ability to enhance the production of antiviral molecules known as type I interferons via nucleic acid ‘sensors’ inside cells.

Plant-based treatments have traditionally been used to treat a wide range of diseases, including viral infections. Medicinal plants and herbs have been a rich source of ‘bioactive’ compounds (i.e. compounds that have a biological effect), which have been used by pharmaceutical companies in antiviral products. These compounds can interfere with different viruses at various stages of their life cycle and modulate the body’s immune response to viral infection.

Recently, a study published in Volume 14, Issue 15 of the journal Foods on August 6, 2025, led by Mr. Abdullah Al Sufian Shuvo, who is completing his doctorate from the Graduate School of Medicine, Science and Technology, Shinshu University, Japan, along with his coauthors Masahiro Kassai from S&B Foods Inc. and Dr. Takeshi Kawahara from Shinshu University. They studied one such natural ingredient—the humble cardamom seed, from Elettaria cardamomum, or the cardamom plant. Though it is primarily known as a spice, these researchers found that cardamom seed hot water extract can actually have potent antiviral benefits!

For starters, it might be wondered what inspired the authors to conduct this study, and if it was in any way influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Kawahara elaborates, “We have been researching food ingredients that can prevent viral infections in our daily life since before the emergence of the novel coronavirus. The pandemic has increased society's focus on the antiviral properties of food, which has led to more opportunities for us to engage in this research.”

In a previous study, the authors had found that cardamom seed extract had a preventative effect on influenza virus infection. Continuing this line of questioning, in this study, they conducted experiments on human lung cells known as A549 cells, treated them with cardamom seed extract, and then mimicked the process of viral infection in these cells—all in order to better understand the effect of cardamom seed extract on the production of antiviral molecules.  

More specifically, they found that cardamom seed extract, as well as its major bioactive ingredient, a compound called 1,8-cineole, was capable of activating intracellular nucleic acid sensors, which are sensors inside a cell that can recognize virus-derived DNA and RNA molecules. These sensors can then induce the production of various molecules called cytokines, which act against viruses at different stages of infection.

In this particular case, treatment with cardamom seed extract or 1,8-cineole enhanced the production of a certain type of cytokine known as type I interferons, which play a crucial role in the body’s defense against viral infections, and this increase was mediated by the intracellular nucleic acid sensors.

Given these results, the authors expressed a strong interest in the potential medical applications of their findings. “Cardamom has historically been widely used as a spice with medicinal properties, but based on these findings, it is expected that it can be utilized as an antiviral material to prevent a wide range of viral infections,” explains Dr. Kawahara. He adds, “We hope that this research will provide a new perspective on the antiviral properties of food and create an opportunity to focus attention on a wider range of food ingredients that can help prevent viral infections in daily life.”

 

Cardamom seed extract, as well as its main bioactive ingredient, 1,8-cineole, enhances antiviral type I interferon production via intracellular nucleic acid sensors in cells targeted by viral infection.

Credit

Abdullah Al Sufian Shuvo from Shinshu University, Japan

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About Shinshu University

Shinshu University is a national university founded in 1949 and located nestling under the Japanese Alps in Nagano known for its stunning natural landscapes.

Shinshu University was selected for the Forming Japan’s Peak Research Universities (J-PEAKS) Program by the Japanese government. This initiative seeks to promote the formation of university consortia that will enhance research capabilities across Japan.

Our motto, "Powered by Nature - strengthening our network with society and applying nature to create innovative solutions for a better tomorrow" reflects the mission of fostering promising creative professionals and deepening the collaborative relationship with local communities, which leads to our contribution to regional development by innovation in various fields. We’re working on providing solutions for building a sustainable society through interdisciplinary research fields: material science (carbon, fiber and composites), biomedical science (for intractable diseases and preventive medicine) and mountain science, and aiming to boost research and innovation capability through collaborative projects with distinguished researchers from the world. For more information visit https://www.shinshu-u.ac.jp/english/ or follow us on X (Twitter) @ShinshuUni for our latest news.

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Journal

Foods

DOI

10.3390/foods14152744 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

Type I Interferon-Enhancing Effect of Cardamom Seed Extract via Intracellular Nucleic Acid Sensor Regulation

COI Statement

Author Masahiro Kassai is employed by S&B Foods Inc. He participated in the project administration of the study. The role of the company was to provide funding. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be constructed as a potential conflict of interest.

 

Wetland plant-fungus combo cleans up ‘forever chemicals’ in a pilot study

American Chemical Society

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In lab experiments, the yellow flag iris and a root fungus worked together as a natural strategy to remove forever chemicals from water.

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Credit: Adapted from Environmental Science & Technology 2025, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5c06131

Wetlands act as nature’s kidneys: They trap sediments, absorb excess nutrients and turn pollutants into less harmful substances. Now, the list of pollutants wetland plants can remove includes per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). From a greenhouse study, researchers in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology report that moisture-loving yellow flag irises and fungi on their roots are a promising combination for PFAS removal. As part of a constructed wetland, this pair could effectively treat contaminated wastewater.

“Our study shows that a type of fungus (Rhizophagus irregularis) boosts wetlands’ ability to remove PFAS and greatly reduces the environmental risks from ‘forever chemicals’ left in the outflowing water,” said Bo Hu, a corresponding author of the research. “These results are key for developing stronger wetland-based cleanup methods and could inspire new technologies for removing PFAS.”

Symbiotic relationships between plants and underground microbes, such as a group of fungi named arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), are vital for wetland ecosystems. As fungi colonize roots, they break down nutrients in exchange for beneficial carbohydrates from the plants. Previously, Bo Hu and colleagues found more benefits of this relationship: AMF helped wetland plants tolerate the presence of PFAS. PFAS are long-lasting compounds that pose potential health risks to people, animals and plants. So, Bo Hu, Feng Zhao and additional researchers wanted to study how well wetland plants, specifically yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus L.), remove PFAS in the presence and absence of one symbiotic fungus (R. irregularis). They aimed to develop guidance for constructed wetlands as a natural water treatment strategy.

Inside greenhouses, the researchers built small, wetland-like systems with yellow flag irises in tall plastic tubes. The flowers were planted in a sand-soil microbe mixture either with the fungus or without it for the control treatment. They watered the miniature wetlands with a solution that mimicked wastewater, and some were also watered with one of four individual PFAS at realistic concentrations.

Plant health declined when exposed to PFAS, with less growth and more signs of physiological distress (e.g., lower activity of antioxidant enzymes), compared to irises grown without PFAS exposure. In contrast, the researchers observed that adding the fungus improved growth for plants that were both exposed and not exposed to PFAS. For those wetland systems watered with the PFAS-containing solutions, the AMF-treated plants:

• Removed 10-13% more of the individual PFAS than those with the control treatment, incorporating more long-chain PFAS than short-chain PFAS in their shoots and roots.
• Boosted breakdown of PFAS into smaller compounds that had lower toxicity than their parent compounds, which the researchers suggest is because the fungi stimulate nearby microbial activity.

They also tested the water draining out of the wetland tubes exposed to PFAS. All the outflow samples contained PFAS, but those from the fungal tubes had 17-28% less total PFAS compared to samples from the bacterial tubes. These results indicate that adding AMF, specifically R. Irregularis, in constructed wetlands could improve their removal of PFAS, say the researchers.

Their next steps are to test the constructed wetlands in more realistic scenarios, moving from the contained greenhouse environment to the natural world and using actual PFAS-contaminated wastewater.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Science Foundation of China, the Zhejiang Province Science Foundation for Youths, and the Foundation of Science and technology of Plan in Jinhua.

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The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1876 and chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is committed to improving all lives through the transforming power of chemistry. Its mission is to advance scientific knowledge, empower a global community and champion scientific integrity, and its vision is a world built on science. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, e-books and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Registered journalists can subscribe to the ACS journalist news portal on EurekAlert! to access embargoed and public science press releases. For media inquiries, contact newsroom@acs.org.

Note: ACS does not conduct research but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies.

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Journal

Environmental Science & Technology

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.5c06131 

Article Title

“Mitigating Ecological Risks: Role of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis in Translocation and Transformation of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Constructed Wetlands”

Article Publication Date

17-Oct-2025

 

Compound from Antarctic microorganism can be used to produce food, cosmetics, and medicine

The substance is essential for the survival of microbes in extreme environments and has been shown to have antioxidant, emulsifying, and stabilizing properties.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

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A bioactive compound produced by the microorganism Bacillus licheniformis, found on Deception Island in Antarctica, has properties that qualify it for use in producing food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and biodegradable materials.

This finding is the result of a project led by the Chilean Antarctic Institute and supported by FAPESP through the Food Research Center (FoRC), a Research, Innovation, and Dissemination Center (RIDC) based at the University of São Paulo’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCF-USP) in Brazil.

The research results were published in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules.

Deception Island was chosen as the focus of the study because it is a poly-extreme ecosystem, i.e., an environment with very high or very low temperatures, pH changes, and intense ultraviolet radiation. These characteristics force microorganisms in the region to develop special metabolic and physiological abilities.

One such adaptation is the production of exopolysaccharides, which are sugar polymers that are secreted by bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and algae and play a crucial role in protecting them from the stresses caused by the poly-extreme ecosystem. In hostile environments, the substance protects microbial cells from dehydration, osmotic pressure, toxic substances, and attacks by phages (viruses that infect bacteria), while also facilitating cell-to-cell communication (read more at agencia.fapesp.br/41500 and agencia.fapesp.br/53718).

“For this reason, we isolated a strain of Bacillus licheniformis found in fumarolic water [liquid present in an opening in the Earth’s crust where water vapor, gases, and minerals from volcanic activity are released], which despite being in Antarctica, reaches temperatures above 100 °C, and we analyzed its genome,” explains João Paulo Fabi, a professor at the Department of Food and Experimental Nutrition at FCF-USP. He is also supported in his studies by FAPESP and is one of the authors of the article.

Genomic sequencing identified genes related to the biosynthesis of exopolysaccharides with good resistance to ultraviolet radiation and thermal adaptation. In addition, its functional properties proved to be superior to those of commercial xanthan gum, which is produced by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris and used as a thickener, stabilizer, and emulsifier in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries. 

“These characteristics make the exopolysaccharide produced by Bacillus licheniformis a strong candidate for biotechnological applications that require stability and bioactivity,” Fabi points out. “It offers antioxidant protection, a longer shelf life, emulsion stability, and texture improvement, particularly in functional foods. Its thermal stability and tolerance to extreme pH also make it promising for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and biodegradable materials in several other areas.”

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe. 

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Journal

Journal of Biological Macromolecules

DOI

10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.146114 

Article Title

Structural characterization and biotechnological potential of an exopolysaccharide produced by Bacillus licheniformis F2LB isolated from Fumarole Bay of Deception Island, Antarctica

Illinois team to lead up to $28M initiative to build a precision phage platform for promoting public health

Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Electron micrographs of bacterial viruses, also known as phages.

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Credit: Hatoum-Aslan lab, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Researchers from the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will partner with investigators from industrial and academic institutions, including Ginkgo Bioworks, Baylor University, University of Minnesota, Oregon State University, and Oregon Health & Science University, on a five-year initiative funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health and overseen by Program Manager Andrew Brack, PhD.

The project, “Microbe/phage Investigation for Generalized Health TherapY (MIGHTY),” aims to harness the natural predators of bacteria – known as phages – as precision tools to shape the human microbiome and promote health. “We are very excited to be hosting this project at the IGB,” said IGB Director Gene Robinson, “The new ARPA-H agency aims to fund creative, transformative ‘moonshot’ initiatives, and the MIGHTY project more than fits the bill. We look forward to the transformative research that this contract will enable.”

Our bodies contain trillions of bacteria that can influence our health. Many are beneficial, but disruptions in their numbers or invasion by pathogens can cause a variety of diseases. For decades, antibiotics have been our go-to defense against harmful bacteria, but they also indiscriminately kill the natural bacterial residents of the microbiome that are important for maintaining health. This often leads to microbiome imbalances, or dysbiosis, that can fuel chronic diseases. Meanwhile, antibiotic resistance continues to rise, compounding the global public health crisis.

 

A Precision Alternative to Antibiotics

Currently, there are few reliable tools that can restore the microbiome balance. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are now turning to phages, the naturally occurring viruses that selectively infect and kill bacteria and already exist throughout the human body. Phages have potential transformative uses as precision antimicrobials because they target specific pathogens while leaving beneficial bacteria unharmed. However, the process of isolating phages from the environment for therapeutic purposes is currently slow and inefficient, and single-phage treatments often fail due to rapid bacterial resistance, leaving the generalized use of phages still out of reach.

Overcoming these challenges, the MIGHTY team will create a platform that enables rapid isolation of bacteria and phages at an unprecedented scale and apply mechanistic modeling and artificial intelligence/machine learning methods to identify effective phage combinations that eradicate harmful bacteria.

 

Starting with Oral Health – And Reaching Further

As an initial application, the team will focus on the oral microbiome where bacterial pathogens drive tooth decay and gum disease, and also contribute to chronic illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes, and oral and colorectal cancers. The researchers aim to develop an easy-to-use, low-cost phage product – such as a chewable gummy – that can improve oral health for everyone.

“Our long-term goal is to usher phage-based therapeutics into mainstream medicine as routine and widely accessible treatments,” said Asma Hatoum-Aslan, an associate professor of microbiology at Illinois and lead on the project. “A simple product for oral care is just the start – this platform will support solutions for gut, metabolic, and autoimmune diseases as well.”

The team will leverage Illinois researchers’ deep expertise in bacterial genetics, phage biology, microbiome studies, computational biology, and machine learning, and integrate cutting-edge technologies, such as Ginkgo’s ultra-high-throughput screening technology, and activity-based chemical probes developed at Baylor. The partnership with Gingko Bioworks was facilitated by the External Relations and Strategic Partnerships team at the IGB, led by Tracy Parish.

"Collaborating with Ginkgo Bioworks and our academic partners brings a new dimension to our research,” said Cari Vanderpool, Department Head and McKnight Presidential Endowed Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of Minnesota, and co-investigator on the project. “Together, we're poised to develop innovative treatments that could fundamentally improve health by targeting the microbiome in precise and sustainable ways."