Natural antibiotics from herbs

New Delhi's Metallo-β-lactamase 1, or NDM-1, the new Gram-negative* bacterial pandemic originated in New Delhi's suburbs and resistant to commonly used antibiotics threatens to be the already announced 2012 pandemics. Will India's health care system be able to handle this new pandemic? First discovered in 2008 in two Enterobacteriacea isolates, both recovered from a Swedish patient transferred from India [2].

GRAM-POSITIVE VS GRAM-NEGATIVE BACTERIA

Gram-negative bacterias are a type of bacteria provided with a very strong shield that protect them against most available antibiotics, to which they are resistant. Contrary to gram-positive bacteria, easily treatable with antibiotic treatments to which they are vulnerable, gram-negative bacteria as NDM-1 are a threat to health care systems that find themselves unable to treat patients with antibiotic treatments. Examples of gram-negative bacteria are Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Candida glabrata, Candida albicans, Candida parapsilosis and Candida kreusei.

New Delhi's hospitals already struggle to find ways to fight NDM-1 bacterial infections. Carbapenems, a very powerful type of antibiotics used against a very broad spectrum of bacterial infections as Escherichia coli for example, along with other 14 types of antibiotics, among which we can mention penicillin and cephalosporin failed to stop the infection cases reported in New Delhi's hospitals. In spite NDM-1 was geographically limited to New Delhi's suburbs, globalization has brought it offshore to South Africa [1] and other continents as China, Italy, India, Pakistan, Europe, America and Chinese Taiwan among others [2,3,5], becoming a global problem for which very limited tools are available.

NATURAL ANTIBIOTICS

From Herbcyclopedia we would only like to mention some of the already available and traditionally used natural antibiotics, that in spite may not be effective for gram-negative infections, they will certainly be a good first line of defense against other most common bacterial infections:

1. Garlic (Allium sativum)

Rich in Allicin, a well-known antibacterial and anti-fungal agent found in Allium species, that has also exerted anticancer (anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities) [10], as well as antibiotic effects [9]. In studies done on murine models [10] allicin was effectively in inhibiting the proliferation of EL-4 cells in vitro.

2. Propolis from bee honey

Propolis, used ages ago by Greeks, Egyptians and others to treat different diseases and affections. Nowadays propolis continues to be a well known product in herbal supplements shops and part of many herbal remedies against different affections, including cancer. Propolis contains Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester (CAPE) and bioflavonoid known to have many beneficial properties, being some of these ones antibiotic, antibacterial [11]...etc.

Others as Zingiber officinale (ginger), Allium cepa, Coriandrum sativum, Piper nigrum, Citrus aurantifolia, onion, coriander, Neem, green tea, pepper and ginger, are also well-known natural sources with antibiotic properties.

Disclaimer

REFERENCES

[1] NDM-1 has arrived: First report of a carbapenem resistance mechanism in South Africa. Lowman W, Sriruttan C, Nana T, Bosman N, Duse A, Venturas J, Clay C, Coetzee J. NHLS & Wits University.

[2] NDM-1: the superbug? Pittalis S, Ferarro F, Puro V. Dipartimento di Epidemiologia e Ricerca Preclinica, Istituto Nazionale per le Malattie Infettive Lazzaro Spallanzani, Roma.

[3] Identification of New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase gene (NDM-1) from a clinical isolate of Acinetobacter junii in China.Zhou Z, Guan R, Yang Y, Chen L, Fu J, Deng Q, Xie Y, Huang Y, Wang J, Wang D, Liao C, Gong S, Xia H.  Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical College, 318 Renminzhong Road, Guangzhou 510120, People's Republic of China.

[4] Outbreak of NDM-1-producing Enterobacteriaceae in northern Italy, July to August 2011.Gaibani P, Ambretti S, Berlingeri A, Cordovana M, Farruggia P, Panico M, Landini MP, Sambri V.  Operative Unit of Clinical Microbiology, S. Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital, Bologna, Italy.

[5] A structural view of the antibiotic degradation enzyme NDM-1 from a superbug.Guo Y, Wang J, Niu G, Shui W, Sun Y, Zhou H, Zhang Y, Yang C, Lou Z, Rao Z.  High-throughput Molecular Drug Discovery Center, Tianjin Joint Academy of Biotechnology and Medicine, Tianjin, 300071, China.

[6] Antibacterial activity of natural spices on multiple drug resistant Escherichia coli isolated from drinking water, Bangladesh.Rahman S, Parvez AK, Islam R, Khan MH.  Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Islamic University, Kushtia, Bangladesh

[8] Anti-mycobacterial activity of garlic (Allium sativum) against multi-drug resistant and non-multi-drug resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis. Hannan A, Ikram Ullah M, Usman M, Hussain S, Absar M, Javed K. Department of Microbiology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan.

[9] Indian Medicinal Plants: An Illustrated Dictionary by C. P. Khare

[10] Allicin induces apoptosis in EL-4 cells in vitro by activation of expression of caspase-3 and -12 and up-regulation of the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2. Wang Z, Liu Z, Cao Z, Li L. a School of Life Sciences , Lanzhou University , Lanzhou 730000 , PR China.

[11] Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future By David Wolfe