It worth mentioning that both baica
lein and baica
lin are antiviral, at least in vitro. Both compounds are found in skullcap herb (Scutellaria lateriflora) and Chinese skullcap (Scutellaria baicalensis).
Baica
lein has been
shown antiviral for coxsackievirus B3 (a virus linked to ME/CFS) in an in vitro study.
Baica
lin has been
shown antiviral for enterovirus 71 (a virus not linked to ME/CFS) in an in vitro study.
Baica
lin has also been
shown to induce interferon alpha, beta and gamma in vitro, and so in principle may have some antiviral effects against viruses susceptible to interferon therapy, which include coxsackievirus B3 and B5 (but not CVB4,
according to Dr Chia).
However, a while ago I did some pharmacokinetic calculations to work out what sort of human oral dose of baicalein and baicalin would be required in order to reach the antiviral concentrations used in those in vitro studies. It turns out that these human oral doses would be impossibly high. So at any normal dose levels, you are not going get any significant antiviral effect from either baicalein or baicalin (assuming my calculations are correct).
Most of the time, antiviral studies of herbs, supplements or drugs are carried out in vitro, in a cell line. In the cell line, compounds can have potent antiviral effects when added at certain concentrations, but these effects often do not translate to antiviral actions in vivo, due to the fact that it would require an impossibly high oral dose of the compound in order to achieve the same concentration in the bloodstream and the body tissues.