Besides, in recent times the mangrove plant extracts
have been proved to be effective in vitro against several pathogenic
diseases (e.g. New Castle disease, Encephalo myocarditis, Hepatitis
B). Surprisingly, a polysaccharide extracted from the bark of Rhizophora
mucronata shows anti-viral activity against Human Immunodeficiency
Virus (HIV) in an in vitro cell culture system
(Premanathan et al., 1999 a,b).