Progress in Recent Study of Anti-HBV Natural Products and Extracts

Hepatitis B is a serious liver infectious disease, which remains a major public health problem worldwide. Though some effective treatments have been taken clinically, the therapeutic effects are moderate and suffer from the significant side effects and inevitable drug resistance. Therefore, the safer and more effective anti-HBV drugs are urgently required. Many natural products are well documented as their novel structures and potent bioactivity. Researchers worldwide, especially in China, have been exploring natural drugs against HBV. Some natural products with anti-HBV activities were found. Extracting and isolating pure compounds with anti-HBV bioactivity from natural resources are therefore a promising approach to discover and develop new drugs. Herein, we systematically elucidated the anti-HBV activity, chemical structure of some herb medicine extracts reported in literature recently. Furthermore, we compared the anti-HBV activities of these natural products, which would provide useful information for the pharmaceutical synthesis and evaluation.