Boost Antibiotic Efficacy with Medicinal Herbs

Not only are we facing shortages in critical antibiotic supplies, but also dealing with increasing antibiotic resistance at the same time.  As a race, we’re becoming increasingly fragile.  As Americans (well, most readers of this blog are), we have had clean water and food and excellent medical care.  The pathogens that regularly assault most people on this planet (and thus test and build up their immune responses) have been far removed from us.  We are the most fragile people on the planet.  It’s not a good situation to be in. 

We have to do everything we can to gain an advantage, especially when it comes to medicine and menacing bacteria.  What many people don’t realize is that there are several medicinal herbs that work synergistically with conventional antibiotics.  This is especially important as we deal with antibiotic resistance.  Using the right herb can also help reduce the time for healing to occur as well as reduce the number of pills that have to be taken, thus extending the supplies.  Unfortunately, most physicians are completely unfamiliar with the use of medicinal herbs.  Fortunately, you can educate yourself and be prepared when bacteria strike.

The left column of the table below lists some commonly used antibiotics.  The center column indicates which herbs can be used to maximize the efficacy of that antibiotic.  The right column notes particular conditions or bacteria where the combination of the antibiotic and herb are particularly effective.

Antibiotic	Herbs	Notes
	Piperine[1], licorice[2]	Gram-negative bacteria[3]
Ampicillin	Japanese barberry[4], juniper[5] [6], nasturtium[7], pomegranate[8], thyme[9]
Bacitracin	Ginger[10], thyme[11]
Ceftriaxone	Isatis[12]	MRSA
Chloramphenicol	Nasturtium[13], pomegranate[14]
Ciprofloxacin	Isatis[15], pomegranate[16], rosemary[17]	MRSA (isatis), Klebsiella pneumoniae (rosemary)
Clarithromycin	Ginger[18], usnea[19]	H. pylori
Erythromycin	Juniper[20] [21], thyme[22]
Fluconazole	Japanese barberry[23]
Gentamycin	Ginger[24], isatis[25], pomegranate[26]	MRSA (isatis)
Oxacillin	Japanese barberry[27], pomegranate[28]
Penicillin	Isatis[29], thyme[30], piperine[31]	MRSA, meningitis (piperine) [32]
Polymyxin b	Ginger[33]
Streptomycin	Ginger[34]
Tetracycline	Ginger[35], pomegranate[36], thyme[37]	Staphylococcus
TMP SMZ	Nasturtium[38] [39]
Tobramycin	Ginger[40]

 

This table highlights just a few of the antibiotic-herb synergisms that have been found effective in clinical trials.  Herbs have been employed for hundreds to thousands of years to treat infections.  Building a good supply of these common herbs will extend your supply of antibiotics and hasten healing.  However, keep in mind that these herbs are medicine.  They do interact with other drugs and should only be used as advised by licensed medical personnel.

Links to related posts:

Antibiotic Chart to Guide Acquisition 

OK, there are just too many today.  Go to the search bar on the right and type in the herb, antibiotic, or medical condition of interest to you.

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[1] Stephen Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 238.

[2] Stephen Buhner, Herbal Antivirals, 2013, 219.

[3] Stephen Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 238.

[4] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 166.

[5] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 186.

[6] Rajinder Raina, et al., “Potential of Juniperus communis L. as a Nutraceutical in Human and Veterinary Medicine,” Heliyon, August 2019, Vol 5 No 8, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles /PMC6726717/ (accessed 2 February 2021).

[7] Monica Butnariu, et al., Antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities of the volatile oil compounds from Tropaeolum majus L. (nasturtium), African Journal of Biotechnology, 29 June 2011, Vol 10 No 31, https://academicjournals.org/article/article1380902607_Butnariu%20and%20Bostan.pdf (accessed 9 December 2021).

[8] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215.

[9] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 213.

[10] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 235.

[11] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 213.

[12] Z. C. Yang, et al., The synergistic activity of antibiotics combined with eight traditional Chinese medicines against two different strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Colloids Surf. B Biointerfaces, 2005, Vol 41,  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15737531/ (accessed 18 September 2021)

[13] Monica Butnariu, et al., Antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities of the volatile oil compounds from Tropaeolum majus L. (nasturtium), African Journal of Biotechnology, 29 June 2011, Vol 10 No 31, https://academicjournals.org/article/article1380902607_Butnariu%20and%20Bostan.pdf (accessed 9 December 2021).

[14] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215.

[15] Z. C. Yang, et al., The synergistic activity of antibiotics combined with eight traditional Chinese medicines against two different strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Colloids Surf. B Biointerfaces, 2005, Vol 41,  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15737531/ (accessed 18 September 2021)

[16] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215.

[17] SF van Vuuren, et al., The antimicrobial activity of four commercial essential oils in combination with conventional antimicrobials, Letters in Applied Microbiology, April 2009, Vol 48 No 4, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19187494/ (accessed 19 January 2022).

[18] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 235.

[19] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 201.

[20] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 186.

[21] Rajinder Raina, et al., “Potential of Juniperus communis L. as a Nutraceutical in Human and Veterinary Medicine,” Heliyon, August 2019, Vol 5 No 8, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles /PMC6726717/ (accessed 2 February 2021).

[22] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 213.

[23] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 166.

[24] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 235.

[25] Z. C. Yang, et al., The synergistic activity of antibiotics combined with eight traditional Chinese medicines against two different strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Colloids Surf. B Biointerfaces, 2005, Vol 41,  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15737531/ (accessed 18 September 2021)

[26] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215.

[27] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 166.

[28] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215.

[29] Z. C. Yang, et al., The synergistic activity of antibiotics combined with eight traditional Chinese medicines against two different strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Colloids Surf. B Biointerfaces, 2005, Vol 41,  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15737531/ (accessed 18 September 2021)

[30] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 213.

[31] Stephen Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 245.

[32] Stephen Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 245.

[33] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 235.

[34] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 235.

[35] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 235.

[36] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215.

[37] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 213.

[38] Florian M Wagenlehner, M et al, Non-Antibiotic Herbal Therapy (BNO 1045) versus Antibiotic Therapy (Fosfomycin Trometamol) for the Treatment of Acute Lower Uncomplicated Urinary Tract Infections in Women: A Double-Blind, Parallel-Group, Randomized, Multicentre, Non-Inferiority Phase III Trial, Urologia internationalis 2018, Vol 101 No 3, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6262678/ (accessed 10 December 2021).

[39] R Stange, et al., Results of a randomized, prospective, double-dummy, double-blind trial to compare efficacy and safety of a herbal combination containing Tropaeoli majoris herba and Armoraciae rusticanae radix with co-trimoxazole in patients with acute and uncomplicated cystitis, Res Rep Urol., 2017, Vol 9, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5359132/ (accessed 10 December 2021).

[40] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 235.

 25 january 2022

How Antibiotics Work, And How Bacteria Respond

How antibiotics work and how bacteria respond is a complex topic.  Countless researchers devote their careers to studying just one aspect of bacteria or plants or compounds.  That's far beyond the scope of this blog, and yet acquiring a very basic understanding of how they work, what they can and cannot do, may help us use our limited supply of industrially manufactured antibiotics and natural herbal antibiotics as best as possible for our families.  What follows is a gross simplification of how bacteria and antibiotics work.

Imagine a bacterium as a house.  There are different ways to get into the house and destroy the inhabitants.  Direct access (doors--front, back, garage, balcony, doggie), ventilation (windows, heating, air conditioning, dryer vent, chimney, cracks), water (plumbing, leaking, flooding).  The agents of death can be bullets, falling trees, hurricanes and tornadoes, air-, insect-, or human-borne disease, carbon monoxide, radiation, fire.  There are all kinds of options here.  

Just as there are different ways to enter a house and kill the residents, there are different ways that substances enter bacteria and kill them.  Bacteria differ in what they are susceptible to.  That's why antibiotics, natural or synthetic, have to be selected for the specific condition they are treating.

When bacteria encounter an antibiotic, they begin to respond.  Most die pretty quickly, but due to genetic diversity, some hang on a bit longer.  They learn what the threat is.  They generate possible responses.  Those bacteria in the meantime make more bacteria, with their specific genetic advantages, and some of their descendants are even better adapted to the antibiotic, and the cycle continues.  Because they are reproducing quickly, as fast as twenty minutes per generation, they can adapt.  Individual bacteria may die, but if the chosen antibiotic doesn't wipe out all the bacteria quickly, the species as a whole survives.  They become resistant.  Those resistant bacteria rebound with a vengeance and seek to share the knowledge they acquired in the recent battle with other bacteria far and wide.

Some of the earliest antibiotics worked by disrupting the cell wall, either by breaking down the wall or by preventing the bacteria from repairing the wall.  They specifically work on the peptidoglycan layer of the cell wall and are thus effective on Gram-positive bacteria.  Penicillin family (penicillin, ampicillin, amoxicillin) and cephalosporin (cephalexin) antibiotics act in this manner.

Another way antibiotics operate is by disrupting the cytoplasmic membrane (which is distinct from the cell wall mentioned above).  Polypeptides like polymyxin B and bacitracin work this way.  These antibiotics work like a harsh detergent roughing up the cytoplasmic membrane of Gram-negative bacteria.  The membrane isn't destroyed, but is so shaken by the experience that it lets the antibiotics through to do their work.  Eventually, the bacteria respond by altering the amount of antibiotic that penetrates through the membrane, so that little to nothing gets through.  The bacteria do this by changing the locks, so to say.  They modify the size of the door or increase security.

Other antibiotics interfere with the bacterial DNA replication process or inhibit DNA enzymes.  Bacteria don't actually live all that long.  If they can't make babies, the little community they have sought to colonize in or on you dies out.  Quinolone family antibiotics (-ofloxacins like ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, and moxifloxacin) work this way.


Some antibiotics slow or prevent bacterial RNA protein synthesis.  This includes several classes of antibiotics--lincosamides (clindamycin), macrolides (azithromycin, clarithromycin, erythromycin), and tetracyclines (doxycycline, minocycline, tetracycline).   The antibiotics bind to the RNA.  No protein can be made.  No growth.  No offspring.  To combat this threat, the bacteria make internal adjustments such that the target of the antibiotics, the RNA, isn't affected.  They drank the Kool-Aid, but it didn't matter because Poison Control was already on the scene.

Carbapenem antibiotics (end in -penem) greatly inhibit some bacterial enzymes to prevent cell wall synthesis. They're often used when all else fails.  Kind of like Indiana Jones in the Raiders of the Lost Ark using his whip to escape his foes in the marketplace.  He fights on and the bad guys keep coming.  He finally whips out his pistol and dispatches the last assassin without a second thought.  The bacteria are learning to make their own compounds to disable these broad-spectrum antibiotics of last resort.  Which means the antibiotics of last resort are losing this battle.

Inhibiting folate synthesis, a process essential to nucleic acid synthesis, is another way antibiotics work.  These antibiotics don't kill the bacteria; they just don't let the bacteria reproduce.  This includes the sulfonamides like silver sulfadiazine and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole.

By producing toxic free radicals, metronidazole is in a class by itself.   It works against anaerobic bacteria. 


Over the millennia, bacteria have evolved different mechanisms to protect themselves.  One of these mechanisms involves efflux pumps.  They're basically sump pumps, varying in sophistication from the entry-level ones that act on only a single substance to the highly complex that remove all kinds of foreign matter.

Sometimes bacteria take a "if you can't beat them, join them" approach, like when they decide to live in cleaning solutions.  They can even adapt themselves to digest antibiotics as if they were food.  This extreme adaptability and all the other adaptations bacteria make don't bode well for us.  Unfortunately for us, the bacteria don't stop there.


Once they learn how to adapt, they have massive bacteria networking parties and share all they know with each other so that they can kill us more efficiently.

It's a wonder any of us are still alive.

As you ponder about how antibiotics and bacteria work, think of industrial antibiotics as snipers.  If the conditions are perfect, the sniper hits the mark, and the mark dies.  But if any one thing goes wrong, the sniper misses.  Now think of herbal antibiotics as paper inflicting cuts everywhere.  Death by a thousand paper cuts.  But it's really not just paper cuts.  Herbs work everywhere, each making their own little contributions.  Herbs have numerous natural chemical compounds.  Industrial pharmaceuticals have concentrated one of those compounds to act like a sniper with a massive, long-range bullet.  Herbs keep all their active constituents, acting more like a shotgun to inflict death.  And when herbs are combined, there are even more shotgun pellets, so to say, to do the job.  The sniper's bullet kills immediately if it hits the target, while death by a thousand paper cuts takes longer.  But fortunately, the target can't evade or defeat the paper cuts.

That's how herbs work.  It's not an exciting topic, I know, but it's important to have at least a rudimentary understanding. 


Links to related posts:
How Herbal Antibiotics Work
Acquiring Antibiotics


For further reading:
Armageddon Medicine, p 208.
Herbal Antibiotics, pp 14-17.
https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/about.html
https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/threat-report-2013/pdf/ar-threats-2013-508.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_antibiotics

 03.16.2020

Dealing with Antibiotic Resistance

There are literally millions of different bacteria on this planet.  When our medical system collapses, we will not have access to laboratories to identify which particular bug is making us sick.  We and our doctors will be making our best guesses based on the symptoms, the patient history, and the bacteria that commonly cause both.  And then, if it is believed that the cause for the illness is bacterial in origin, a treatment may be suggested.  Industrial antibiotics, if they are even an option, may be advised for serious cases.  Herbs will only be recommended by care providers who are familiar with them, and only if conventional pharmaceuticals are not an option or if herbs are the patient’s preferred choice.  Many physicians just aren’t familiar enough with herbs to be comfortable prescribing them.

On the other hand, most physicians are quite aware of the ever-increasing problem of antibiotic resistance.  This handy little chart I found on Wikipedia depicts the various classes of antibiotics and which bacterial strains they are used against.  Unfortunately, antibiotic resistance is a rapidly growing problem and just because a bacterial infection is supposed to be eliminated by a specific antibiotic doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be.  You can check the far left column of the chart and see that there are only three antibiotics currently effective against MRSA infections.  And again, antibiotics have been winning the battle against resistance.  How long before that number decreases to two antibiotics, and then one?  And then zero?

In the year 1900, before the advent of antibiotics, more than 30% of all deaths were due to bacterial infections.[1]  A few more fun facts from the same article:

• 19,000 deaths were caused by MRSA infections in the US in 2009, more than HIV and tuberculosis combined.
• 40% of Streptococcus pneumoniae strains were resistant to penicillin.
• 1.3 million individuals die of tuberculosis every year worldwide.
• 700,000 cases of gonorrhea occur in the US every year.

With that many illnesses being treated by antibiotics, the risk of developing more antibiotic-resistant strains is exploding.  And there is a significant chance that we’ll encounter one or more of these resistant infections in our family members when professional medical care is hard to get.

So what can we do to ensure we can treat our loved ones?

First off, we have to make sure we’ve stocked the medicine chest with a good variety of antibiotics.  If you take a look at the chart below, you’ll see there is a wide variety of antibiotics that a doctor could use to treat streptococcal infections.  If one doesn’t work, he can prescribe another.  Of course, that doesn’t work on everything, especially something like MRSA. 

However, adding herbs to a conventional antibiotic treatment regimen often works very well, especially when dealing with antibiotic-resistant infections.  And not only can these herbs defeat antibiotic resistance, at the same time they make the antibiotics more effective, thus shortening the course of treatment.  So you can actually use fewer antibiotics and thus extend your supplies.  So instead of having to take the antibiotics for 7 or 10 or 14 days to make sure the infection is good and gone, you may be able to get away with taking the antibiotic until 2-3 days after the fever has passed.  Of course, all this would be based on your doctor’s recommendations. 

The following herbs have been shown in clinical trials to exhibit synergism with antibiotics:

Conventional antibiotic	Corresponding herb
Ampicillin	Berberines*[2], juniper[3] [4], thyme[5] [6], pomegranate[7]
Bacitracin	Thyme[8]
Ciprofloxacin	Isatis[9], rosemary[10]
Clarithromycin	Usnea[11]
Erythromycin	Juniper[12] [13], thyme[14] [15]
Gentamicin	Isatis[16], rosemary[17]
Oxacillin	Berberines[18], pomegranate[19]
Penicillin	Isatis[20], thyme[21]
Tetracycline	Berberines[22], ginger[23], pomegranate[24], thyme[25] [26]

*The berberines include Japanese barberry, Oregon grape, and Nandina domestica.

 

Chart copied from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_antibiotics

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[1] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4829a1.htm

[2] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 166.

[3] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 186.

[4] Rajinder Raina, et al., “Potential of Juniperus communis L. as a Nutraceutical in Human and Veterinary Medicine,” Heliyon, August 2019, Vol 5 No 8, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles /PMC6726717/ (accessed 2 February 2021).

[5] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215.

[6] K Palaniappan, et al., Use of natural antimicrobials to increase antibiotic susceptibility of drug-resistant bacteria, International Journal of Food Microbiology, Vol 140 No 2-3, 15 June 2010, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168160510001868?via%3Dihub (accessed 23 November 2021).

[7] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215-16.

[8] K Palaniappan, et al., Use of natural antimicrobials to increase antibiotic susceptibility of drug-resistant bacteria, International Journal of Food Microbiology, Vol 140 No 2-3, 15 June 2010, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168160510001868?via%3Dihub (accessed 23 November 2021).

[9] Z. C. Yang, et al., The synergistic activity of antibiotics combined with eight traditional Chinese medicines against two different strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Colloids Surf. B Biointerfaces, 2005, Vol 41,  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15737531/ (accessed 18 September 2021)

[10] G.A. Abdulhasan, Synergism effect of rosemary essential oil and some antibiotic against Escherichia coli isolated from clinical samples, IOSR Journal of Pharmacy and Biological Sciences, Vol 12 No 2, March-April 2017, https://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jpbs/papers/Vol12-issue2/Version-3/G1202033942.pdf (accessed 23 November 2021).

[11] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 197.

[12] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 186.

[13] Rajinder Raina, et al., “Potential of Juniperus communis L. as a Nutraceutical in Human and Veterinary Medicine,” Heliyon, August 2019, Vol 5 No 8, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles /PMC6726717/ (accessed 2 February 2021).

[14] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215.

[15] K Palaniappan, et al., Use of natural antimicrobials to increase antibiotic susceptibility of drug-resistant bacteria, International Journal of Food Microbiology, Vol 140 No 2-3, 15 June 2010, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168160510001868?via%3Dihub (accessed 23 November 2021).

[16] Z. C. Yang, et al., The synergistic activity of antibiotics combined with eight traditional Chinese medicines against two different strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Colloids Surf. B Biointerfaces, 2005, Vol 41,  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15737531/ (accessed 18 September 2021)

[17] G.A. Abdulhasan, Synergism effect of rosemary essential oil and some antibiotic against Escherichia coli isolated from clinical samples, IOSR Journal of Pharmacy and Biological Sciences, Vol 12 No 2, March-April 2017, https://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jpbs/papers/Vol12-issue2/Version-3/G1202033942.pdf (accessed 23 November 2021).

[18] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 166.

[19] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215-16.

[20] Z. C. Yang, et al., The synergistic activity of antibiotics combined with eight traditional Chinese medicines against two different strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Colloids Surf. B Biointerfaces, 2005, Vol 41,  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15737531/ (accessed 18 September 2021)

[21] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215.

[22] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 213.

[23] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 235.

[24] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215-16.

[25] Stephen Harrod Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, 2012, 215.

[26] K Palaniappan, et al., Use of natural antimicrobials to increase antibiotic susceptibility of drug-resistant bacteria, International Journal of Food Microbiology, Vol 140 No 2-3, 15 June 2010, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168160510001868?via%3Dihub (accessed 23 November 2021).

 

 30 november 2021