Myrciaria cauliflora, a plant native to Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil also known by its common names Brazilian Grape Tree, Jabotica, Guaperu, Guapuru, Hivapuru, Sabará and Ybapuru is a fruit tree that displays very colourful salmon-colored leaves that turn green when it matures [1].

Myrciaria cauliflora produces dark colored fruits, rich in phenolic compounds, among which we can highlight the anthocyanins [2]. Anthocyanins are the most abundant type of flavonoid [4] and they are responsible for the blue or purple colour present in blueberries, cherries, grapes, blackberries and others[5]. Actually a little bit more than 500 anthocyanins have been found [6] in different herbs, plants and natural sources. Image left: Jaboticabas (2008) by Malcolm Manners under Creative Common license (CC BY 2.0).

In pomegranate for example anthocyanins are the only fatty acid that is believed to play an important role in the health benefits exerted by this fruit (apart from the  polyphenolic content found on it and more specifically punicalagins, punicalins, gallagic acid, and ellagic acid that act as powerful antioxidants).

MYRCIARIA CAULIFLORA

Family: Myrtaceae
Genus: Myrciaria
Common name: Brazilian Grape Tree, Jabotica, Guaperu, Guapuru, Hivapuru, Sabará, Uva de árbol, and Ybapuru [1,3].

Antibiotic resistance is the immunity that certain microorganisms develop after being exposed to some antibiotics. Most medical centers and general practitioners are reluctant to prescribe antibiotics for common bacterial infections and long term use and certainly the abuse of those antibiotics can lead to mutations of the bacterias treated and the subsequent development of the so-called "multi-resistan bacterial strains", or strains of bacterias that are resistant to most types of antibiotics and for which the last line of defense remains the use of combined therapies and new medications, including newly develop antibiotics against these multi-resistant bacterial strains.

PERSEA AMERICANA

Family: Lauraceae
Genus: Persea
Common name: Avocado

QUORUM SENSING EXPLAINED

Quorum sensing, also known as bacterial intracellular communication, is the mechanism by which cells are able to control basic cellular activities and coordinate their actions [1], and the way bacteria is able to infect our bodies in a coordinated and structured way. Quorum sensing is, in other words, the mechanism used by bacteria to synchronize their behaviour, including the virulence of their attacks, antibiotic resistance, biofilm formation (communities of microorganisms attached to a surface [10])...etc, and all this in order to react appropriately to external signal and manage their primary goal, a bacterial infection. Breaking bacterial intracellular communication is a way to stop bacterial infections on a natural way that scientists and pharmaceutical companies have investigated since recent years to fight multi-drug resistance of certain bacterias.

Where traditional antibiotics failed to treat infections caused by bacterial biofilms and multi-resistant bacteria as gram-negative bacteria, quorum sensing inhibitors managed to stop infection, something specially interesting in gram-negative bacteria, shielded in a protective film and immune to most known antibiotics and for which quorum sensing seems to be the last line of defense.

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.