A study published in 2008 in affiliation with the Medical University of Vienna and the Department of Medical Microbiology at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, showed that of hinokitiol inhibit human rhinovirus, coxsackievirus, and mengovirus multiplication. It also showed that hinokitiol interferes with the processing of viral polyproteins, thus inhibiting picornavirus replication. The studied also revealed that hinokitiol lead to the rapid import of extracellular zinc into cells even-though the two are structurally unrelated compounds.