Is your body feeling a wee bit achy? Does the cool weather put your immune system into a bit of a tailspin? Why not fight that flu off before it starts and brew up some honeysuckle tea?!
Yes, you heard me: the fragrant spring flower may be able to ward off the flu. Taken by the Chinese for centuries, scientists have now discovered there’s a property in honeysuckle that seems to act like a viral penicillin.
The study published in Cell Research found that after mice drank some honeysuckle soup there was a decrease in deaths resulting from H5N1 flu. But what was even more surprising was the simple soup seemed to prevent the mice from being infected from other flu variants including H1N1.
This could be great news for scientists, who have been struggling to keep up with the flu’s frequent mutation. Testing still needs to be done for human subjects but the future for a honeysuckle remedy looks like it could be a bright one.
