I believe Schisandra is mentioned in China's oldest herbal, the Pen Tsao Kang Mu Jing (even though its author would likely not add the [jing, 'classic'] to its title). Bay Star Vine, Schisandra glabra is endemic to the U.S., with only a few populations surviving in Arkansas (Crowley's Ridge), Tennessee, Georgia and Florida, where it is endangered and protected. Over-harvesting and land-clearing is the culprit. The great (and therefore, underpaid) French botanist-explorer, Michaux first named the plant, and attempted to establish it in his frontier garden at Ten Mile Station, South Carolina. The most northerly location was one plant in an eastern county in Kentucky. Chinese source of Schisandra berries are available. Unfortunately, it is a waste of time trying to germinate them. They are sterile. A Canadian nursery sells the plants, thus what we have here is an example of capitalism taking advantage of American's disgraceful naivety of its plant heritage. The active constituents of Schisandra are remarkable, and may come more into play as this thread develops. See Pubmed for further info.
Active constituents of Milk thistle, Silybum marianum were studied in an exquisite work published in the Italian journal Phytoterapia. It seems that one compound actually helps to direct protein synthesis inside the cell nucleus. Yet it is not an antiviral, if there is such a thing. Yes, it has withstood the tests of time. It was used medicinally well before the time of Christ.
Those interested in delving further into the pharmacodynamics of both Schisandra and Silybum would do well to use a more powerful combined key-word search at pubmed: keyword[AND]keyword. Example: 'kuppfer[AND]silibinin' (Kuppfer cells of liver + silibinin, a constituent of Silybum that directs synthesis in the cell nucleus).
In reference to red and gray kangaroos, it should be mentioned that their ability to withstand drought areas coincides with certain tick habitats and morphology and pigmentation of the body of ticks. Thus, wallabies, kangaroos....Macropodidae translates to 'large legged' and ironically there is a retired scientist who flags for a certain paralysis-causing tick in the hills above Sidney, Australia. There is a video of a dog bitten by one of these ticks on the Net. It appears as if it had polio. What would be of interest is to document what ticks are being found on these kangaroos in close proximity to humans, and by default, studies on erythrocyte morphology of both tick and host. To the concept of acylation/de-acylation can be added erythrocyte osmotic fragility:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmedOsmotic Fragility 11263725
G6PD 7599974