This common plant may just help you fight the flu

Centuries old Chinese folk medicine may have a cure for that nasty flu bug, or at least a way to keep from getting it.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Scientists have found that an ingredient in honeysuckle tea can act like a "viral penicillin" to fight off influenza, the first time that a natural product can directly target the rapidly evolving and mutating virus that requires constant vaccines.

Help combat infectious disease, protect children and the poor.

Until now, antibiotics have been the most effective way to combat most infections, but the find that a natural product is capable of fighting the flu virus in a similar way may just herald new treatments.

There are roughly 180 species of Honeysuckle-a very popular garden plant that his heavily perfumed flowers-in the world. More than half of these are native in China.

Scientists from the Nanjing University School of Life Sciences in China discovered that a compound in honeysuckle, designated as MIR2911, targets influenza A viruses directly.

The seasonal flus that hit most people is the type A or B strain of influenza.

The dangerous pandemics that start around the world occasionally-such as swine or bird flu-are strains of influenza A.

The researchers found that in mice, different types of influenza A strains were effectively treated by the honeysuckle derived compound.

Even more astonishingly, the tests showed that the honeysuckle compound may actually work against the Ebola virus as well.

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