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Garlic
Extract
By
Shahida Nisar
Garlic might be able to ward
off more than vampires. It may also fight two types
of drug-resistant bacteria. The new reports, presented
at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents
and Chemotherapy, suggest that garlic's active ingredient,
allicin, could be useful in the battle against infection
that does not respond to antibiotic drugs, a serious
and growing problem.
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Dr. Ronald Cutler of the University of
East London, UK, reported on his research using a cream
containing allicin, garlic's active compound, to fight
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). MRSAs
infect hospital patients, and are also a danger for healthcare
workers and people with weakened immune systems. “About
half of people carry MRSAs in their noses”, he said.
A topical drug, mupirocin, was released in 1985 to help
wipe out nasal MRSA carriage--which is where most infections
originate--but the bug has already begun to develop resistance
to it, he added.
Cutler and his colleagues developed creams that were able
to carry allicin in a stable, effective form and mask
its odor. They tested the creams against 30 different
samples of MRSA taken from patients and grown in the laboratory.
An allicin concentration of 32 parts per million (ppm)
inhibited the growth of all of the bacteria samples, and
all were killed by allicin at 256 ppm. A topical treatment
for MRSA infection is sorely needed. Cutler said he has
seen patients with extensive, weeping lesions caused by
MRSA infection that don't respond to treatment and have
lasted for months. According to study, there is probably
little danger that bugs will develop resistance to allicin.
While allicin is not effective against certain species
of bacteria, bugs that are susceptible to allicin have
never been seen to develop resistance to it, study shows.
Clinical trials of the allicin cream for MRSA infections
will start next year. Presently, a company; Nopex Ltd,
is carrying out researchand developing the allicin creams.
Dr. Jaya Prakash of the National University of Health
Sciences in Lombard, Illinois, reported on her research
on allicin's effects on another drug-resistant bug, vancomycin-resistant
enterococci (VRE). She and her colleagues conducted laboratory
tests of allicin's effect on VRE samples taken from patients
with the infection. “Allicin did not kill the VRE,
but it did hold their growth in check”, said Jaya.
This suggests that an allicin preparation could be given
to patients when they enter the hospital to prevent VRE
from taking hold in their digestive tracts. She explained
that garlic would be especially effective against bacteria
living in the colon, because up to 20% of the garlic is
not absorbed in the body but excreted in the feces.
"This was a very important first-step study,"
Said Jaya. She noted that patients may enter the hospital
with VREs in their digestive tracts, or they may contract
the infection in the hospital. Once the bug takes hold,
she explained, it could spread to the bladder and to catheters,
resulting in a serious and very difficult-to-treat infection.
Both Jaya and Cutler noted that the garlic preparations
are very safe. "There's a huge margin of safety,"
said Jaya. "That's why it may be the ideal candidate."
The next steps in her research, Jaya said, will be to
try to figure out allicin's mechanism of action against
VREs and to conduct clinical trials. This study was partially
funded by Phytopharmica, a company that makes garlic-containing
products. |
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Praising
Folic Acid
Could the B vitamin that helps prevent
birth defects also protect against Alzheimer’s?
Should everyone be getting more Folic Acid? That’s
the question on a lot of doctors’ minds the week.
Though not as famous as vitamin C, folic acid plays
a crucial role in the development of just about every
cell in the body. A member of the B vitamin family,
it’s found naturally in orange juice, beans and
green vegetables. There is some evidence that folic
acid may reduce the Rick of heart disease, but it is
best known for its role in preventing spina bifida and
other birth defects. Indeed ever since 1998, when the
U.S. food and drug administration mandated that it be
added to cereal products, the number of so-called neural-tube
defects has dropped nearly 20% across America.
Now comes work that the vitamin may, just may, help
ward off the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. In
a study of more than 1,000 older adults published in
the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at
Boston University and Tufts University found that subjects
who had high levels of a particulars amino acid called
homocysteine in their blood were twice as likely to
develop Alzheimer’s as those who didn’t the
finding is important because one of the easiest ways
to lower homocysteine levels is to get plenty of folic
acid.
The study, although not definitive, is the strongest
evidence to date that homocysteine plays a role in Alzheimer’s.
Previous research had found that Alzheimer’s patients
often have high levels of the amino acid in their blood
though that could be because folks with Alzheimer’s
often don’t eat very well.
The new study lays that explanation to rest. As part
of the famous Framingham study, which has tracked the
development of heart disease among residents of Framingham,
Massachusetts, for more than 50 years, researchers in
the 1970s started measuring the homocysteine levels
of men and women who had not yet developed dementia.
Those patients whose homocysteine levels measured over
14 micromoles a liter while they were still healthy
were twice as likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
disease later on.
That doesn’t mean that if you have high homocysteine
levels, you will get Alzheimer’s or that low homocysteine
levels will protect you from dementia. it’s not
even certain, warns Dr. Sudha Seshadri, a neurologist
at Boston University who led the study, that “lowering
homocysteine levels will lower the risk of Alzheimer’s.”
But the case for adding folic acid to your diet is getting
better all the time.
Of course the best source of any vitamin is a healthily
diet. For those of us who still don’t eat our beans
and vegetables, most multivitamins contain the recommended
daily folic-acid does of 400 micrograms. (Eating four
slices of enriched bread gives you’re the equivalent
of roughly 100 micrograms.) There is no risk of over
does, although high levels of folic acid can mask the
signs of pernicious anemia in people who have developed
the disordered. Folic acid by itself may not keep the
doctor away, but there’s no harm trying.
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