BHT is an antioxidant and common food preservative, approved by the FDA for food, oils and fats. Over 25 years ago, a paper was published in the journal Science showing that BHT could inactivate herpes simplex and other lipid coated viruses in vitro (In lab dishes).(1) This was followed by another paper published in Science showing that BHT could prevent chickens from dying of Newcastle disease.(2) The herpes virus and the virus that causes Newcastles disease have a lipid envelope. That is, the nucleic acid core of these viruses is coated with a fatty membrane. Viruses of this type require an intact lipid membrane in order to penetrate cell walls and infect living cells.
BHT appears to work against such viruses by disrupting their lipid membranes making them vulnerable to the immune system and imparing their ability to penetrate human cells. BHT also removes binding proteins that the virus uses to penetrate cell membranes. In addition, BHT acts as an antioxidant neutralizing free radicals that damage cell membranes and cause inflammation. It is believed that the destructive action of many pathogenic viruses involves the destructive action of free radicals on cellular membranes. More recent studies have confirmed the anti-viral activity of BHT against many different human and animal viruses including CMV (cytomegalovirus), (3) pseudorabies (4), genital herpes (5), HIV (6) and some strains of influenza.(7)
A few of the viruses that have a lipid envelope and may be affected by BHT include herpes simplex I, herpes simplex II, herpes zoster, ckytomegalovirus, west nile virus, HIV virus, influenza virus, hepatitis B and C viruses, avian flu influenza virus and the SARS virus. Remember that BHT has not been clinically tested and approved to treat these infections.
continued here..http://www.advance-health.com/bht.html