*14 plant based extracts found to be more effective than the typical antibiotics to treat Lyme***
This study from Johns Hopkins is important to consider--- and the big question is why in the years since the 2020 results, is there not serious funding going for this by the CDC or FDA or NIH, so that people can be helped? Are we too busy looking for the synthetic patentable isolated components to benefit pharma versus finding the treatments that benefit people who are hurting ??? This is why we advocate and work with other Tick Awareness groups to insist that relevant research is needed now, so that better outcomes can benefit the people afflicted.
Study - The standard of care for Lyme disease, a course of antibiotics over 2-4 weeks, is not always effective: at least 10-20% of treated patients continue to experience symptoms after treatment, although other findings show that typical treatments may work in 30% of people, and many more are left with lingering symptoms. Late-stage Lyme patients may experience many different symptoms, including fatigue, joint pains, memory problems, facial paralysis, aches, stiffness in the neck, heart palpitations, and severe headaches. The discovery of novel treatments against Lyme disease is therefore of great interest.
In a new study published in Frontiers in Medicine, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with colleagues at the California Center for Functional Medicine and Focus Health, surveyed the power of 14 plant-based extracts to kill Borrelia burgdorferi, compared to the currently used Lyme antibiotics doxycycline and cefuroxime.
The researchers tested these extracts’ effectiveness in vitro (outside of a living organism) against the free-swimming “planktonic” form of the bacterium as well as against microcolonies. Microcolonies are aggregates of bacteria, the first stage in the development of biofilms – structured bacterial communities that stick to a surface and are embedded in a slimy extracellular matrix.
The researchers show that plant extracts from black walnut, cat’s claw, sweet wormwood, Mediterranean rockrose, and Chinese skullcap had strong activity against B. burgdorferi, outperforming both tested antibiotics.
But by far the strongest performers were Ghanaian quinine (Cryptolepis sanguinolenta; also known as yellow-dye root, nibima, or kadze) and Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum).
Ghanaian quinine is a shrub from West Africa containing the antimicrobial alkaloid cryptolepine, and is used in ethnomedicine to treat malaria, hepatitis, septicemia, and tuberculosis. Japanese knotweed is a traditional medicine in India and China that contains the polyphenol resveratrol. In other preclinical studies it has been found to have anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory effects and protect the nervous system and heart. Extracts from both plants were found to kill microcolonies of Borrelia burgdorferi and inhibit division of the planktonic form, even at low concentrations (0.03-0.5%). Remarkably, a single 7-day treatment with 1% Ghanaian quinine could completely eradicate the bacterium – it did not regrow, even under optimal conditions in the drug’s absence.
“This study provides the first convincing evidence that some of the herbs used by patients such as Cryptolepis, black walnut, sweet wormwood, cat’s claw, and Japanese knotweed have potent activity against Lyme disease bacteria, especially the dormant persister forms, which are not killed by the current Lyme antibiotics,” says Dr Ying Zhang from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
*****“These findings are exciting as they offer opportunities for improved treatment of persistent Lyme disease, which is not helped by the current standard treatment. We are interested in further evaluating these potent herbal medicines through animal studies as well as clinical trials.”
“Many thousands of Lyme patients today, especially those with later-stage symptoms who have not been effectively treated, are in great need of efficacious, accessible treatment options,” says Dr Sunjya K. Schweig, CEO and co-Director of the California Center for Functional Medicine and Scientific Advisory Board Member of the Bay Area Lyme Foundation.
Coauthor Jacob Leone of the FOCUS Health Group stresses: “Patients and their clinicians are increasingly turning to herbal remedies as additional treatment options, and we hope that these findings will help point the way toward a greater understanding of these therapies. But further preclinical studies and clinical trials will be required to establish evidence for effective treatment of Lyme disease patients.”
(Ethnobotanical medicine is effective against the bacterium causing Lyme disease Posted on February 21, 2020 by Frontiers Science Communications)
https://www.frontiersin.org/.../fmed.2020.00006/full...