Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria (29 page)

An in vivo trial with goldenseal found that the plant was helpful in treating liver cancer in rats. The plant's constituents do possess some antitumor actions and their concentration in the liver was found to be useful in the treatment of liver cancer, primarily as a supportive therapy.

Berberis vulgaris
, when used instead of antibiotics in chicken feed, substantially increased the birds' weight, just as antibiotics do.

Quite a number of the in vivo studies of the effectiveness of berberine as an antimicrobial use injectable forms of the compound. I am omitting most of these here (even though some of them are included in the bibliography). They don't in any way indicate the actions of the compound when used as an herbal preparation. Injection is one of the ways researchers are trying to make the compound systemic. There has been some success at this but there is a rather high toxicity when the isolated constituent is used that way, a toxicity that does not occur when crude extracts of the plants are used.

I am also skipping most of the in vitro studies, which are voluminous. Berberine's antimicrobial actions have already been mentioned throughout this section. Quite a few references are in the bibliography. Here are just a few clinical results of berberine's use.

A clinical trial with children suffering from giardia (ages 5 months to 14 years) was conducted in India. Berberine, administered orally, 10 mg/kg/day, was effective in eradicating the infection, comparable to quinacrine hydrochloride, furazolidone, and metronidazole.

Four hundred adults presenting with acute watery diarrhea were treated in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of berberine. Berberine combined with tetracycline was potently effective. Berberine alone reduced diarrheal stools and cyclic adenosine monophosphate concentrations in stools by 77 percent; another study found that berberine reduced diarrheal stools in cholera and/or enterotoxigenic
E. coli
(ETEC) up to 50 percent and that it was more potently effective in treating ETEC than cholera; another trial in a randomized, controlled trial of 165 adults with either ETEC or cholera found that in those with cholera berberine significantly reduced the mean 8-hour stool volume; however, with ETEC berberine completely inhibited diarrhea in half the participants within 24 hours.

Clinical (human) trials—placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind—with 63 men with enterotoxigenic
E. coli
diarrhea found 400 mg of berberine sulfate to have dependable effectiveness, surpassing pharmaceuticals. In the 8 hours following treatment those in the berberine group experienced significant decrease in stool volume. Within 24 hours 42 percent of the participants in the berberine group stopped having diarrhea, versus 20 percent in the placebo group.

Another trial in the treatment of giardia in India found that berberine improved gastrointestinal symptoms and reduced giardia-positive stools. Berberine was found as effective as metronidazole at only half the dose.

In a clinical study with 51 people of an aqueous berberine preparation versus sulfacetamide in the treatment of
Chlamydia trachomatis
eye infections, berberine was found to be slightly less effective than the drug. However, the drug did not completely eradicate the organism and relapses occurred. In the berberine group there were no relapses of those cured, even after 1 year. Other clinical studies have found similar outcomes. The crude extracts of berberine plants have consistently been found more effective than berberine.

Palmatine was used to treat 1,042 cases of gynecological infection, upper respiratory infection, surgical infection, tonsillitis, enteritis, and bacillary dysentery with good effect. In the treatment of 200 cases of vulvovaginal candidiasis, 171 were cured, 24 improved.

Numerous in vivo studies have found berberine to be tonically antitumor for a number of different kinds of cancers, from breast to bladder to gastric to liver. It down-regulates metalloproteinases 1, 2, and 9 and is a potent COX-2 inhibitor.

Berberine, in vivo, oral administration, has been found to reduce insulin resistance in rats and to lower blood glucose levels and correct blood lipid metabolism disorders. In essence it suppresses intestinal disaccharidases, benefitting diabetic states while also improving glucose metabolism through the induction of glycolysis and increasing insulin sensitivity.

It has also been found to be immunomodulatory (rather than stimulatory). It does increase IgA antibodies in mucosal tissue but it also reduces the overactivity of various aspects of the immune system. In other words if the immune system is ramped up by an autoimmune dynamic or hyper-activated by something like phytohemagglutinin or phorbol dibutyrate plus ionomycin, berberine modulates the response, suppressing the overactivity.

Family:
Cupressaceae

Species Used:
There are 50 or 59 or even 67 species (taxonomists have to use their fingers and toes to count) in the
Juniperus
genus; all of them can be used similarly.

Usually the berries and needles, but the bark, wood, and root are all active.

The constituents in the junipers are readily soluble in alcohol but vary in water depending on what part of the plant you are using. The berries must be tinctured in alcohol or eaten whole to be effective. The needles will work to some extent in water (but are better in alcohol—the monoterpenes just aren't that water soluble as numerous studies have found), the bark not so well.

Use:
The berries for urinary tract infections. The berries or needles for upper respiratory or GI tract infections. The heartwood, roots, bark, berries, or needles for skin infections and infectious dysentery. The essential oil for airborne and upper respiratory infections.

Berries:
1:5, 75 percent alcohol, 5–20 drops, up to 3x daily.

Chopped or powdered needles prepared as a standard infusion, covered, 4–6 ounces, 3–6x daily.

A strong decoction of the herb has been traditionally used in many cultures to sterilize brewing equipment, cooking utensils, surgical instruments, hands, counters, etc. The decoction is also effective as a wound wash to either prevent or cure infection. Use 1 ounce herb per quart of water, boil 30 minutes, then turn off the heat and let steep overnight.

Actions

Antibacterial

Anticatarrhal

Antifungal

Anti-inflammatory

Antimicrobial

Antineoplastic

Antinociceptive

Antioxidant

Antirheumatic

Antiseptic

Antiviral

Carminative

Digestive

Diuretic

Hypoglycemic

Hypolipidaemic

Radical scavenger

Stomachic

Active Against

Alcohol extracts of juniper show activity against 57 strains of 24 bacterial species in the following genera:

Acinetobacter

Bacillus

Brevundimonas

Brucella

Enterobacter

Escherichia

Micrococcus

Pseudomonas

Staphylococcus

Xanthomonas

They have been shown to inhibit, as well, 11
Candida
species. They are also active against biofilm formation. Some antimicrobial specifics:

Acinetobacter baumannii

Actinomyces bovis

Aspergillus fumigatus

Aspergillus niger

Bacillus brevis

Bacillus cereus

Bacillus megaterium

Bacillus subtilis

Caenorhabditis elegans

Candida
spp.

Clostridium perfringens

Cryptococcus neoformans

Enterococcus faecalis

Escherichia coli

Fusobacterium necrophorum

Geotrichum candidum

Hansenula anomala

Helicobacter pylori

Klebsiella oxytoca

Klebsiella pneumoniae

Leishmania donovani

Listeria monocytogenes

Micrococcus flavus

Micrococcus luteus

Microsporum gypseum

Mycobacterium
spp. (including
M. tuberculosis
, even resistant strains such as H37Rv, and seven non-tuberculosis types)

Plasmodium falciparum

Proteus mirabilis

Proteus vulgaris

Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Rhodotorula
spp.

Salmonella typhi

Serratia marcescens

Shigella dysentariae

Shigella sonnei

Staphylococcus aureus
(including resistant strains)

Staphylococcus epidermidis

Staphylococcus intermedius

Streptococcus durans

Streptococcus faecalis

Streptococcus mutans

Streptococcus sanguinis

Trichophyton mentagrophytes

Trichophyton rubrum

Yersinia enterocolitica

Juniperis
also active against various cancer cell lines, SARS coronavirus, and herpes simplex 1.

In whole form, for gastric problems: eat 1–5 berries per day for 2 weeks.

Add any part of the plant to wound powders or use alone to prevent or cure infection in wounds.

Any part of the plant, but usually the needles or berries. Use in sweat lodge or sauna directly on the stones or boil 4 ounces of needles in 1 gallon water, pour the resultant tea on stones, and inhale steam. Or just inhale the steam as it boils.

For sinus and upper respiratory infections, 8–10 drops in water in a 1-ounce nasal spray bottle, 4–6x day; shake well before use. Or use the essential oil in a diffuser for helping prevent and cure upper respiratory infections. Moderate amounts can be mixed in water for use as steam inhalant or in a sweat lodge for upper respiratory infections.

There has been a long-standing assertion in scores of herbals that the use of this plant may cause kidney irritation and that it is highly contraindicated in kidney disease. (Guilty of this myself.) I have used the plant for over two decades and have never seen any problems. The phytomedicalist Kerry Bone and others have tracked back the emergence of this belief; it began in the latter part of the nineteenth century, apparently from the administration of large doses of the essential oil to animals. Recent studies with rats have found, contrary to popular belief, a kidney-protecting effect from the use of the plant. This bears
out the long use by the Eclectics of the berries in the treatment of active kidney disease and inflammation. I no longer consider the herb contraindicated in kidney disease, nor do I feel that kidney irritation can occur from normal use.

The only side effect I have ever seen from use was a mild diarrhea when the essential oil (15 drops in 1 ounce of olive oil) was used in the treatment of an ear infection. The mix was applied three times daily with a cotton swab. The diarrhea stopped upon discontinuance of the herb.

The essential oil is not really for internal use other than as a steam inhalant or for aromatherapy. Neither the plant itself nor the berry appears to produce any side effects, nor have I ever heard of any.

Caution should probably be exercised by diabetics in any long-term use of the plant as it affects blood glucose levels and may alter insulin requirements. It should probably not be used long term with pharmaceutical diuretics.
However
, almost no one uses the plant long term for healing; usually it is a short-course herb for UTI.

None noted.

Generally, there are two main types of junipers. The first is a typical sort of evergreen tree (sometimes shrubby looking) growing up to 50 feet tall. The second is a low, spreading shrub, usually with nasty, prickly needles that will easily penetrate clothing and skin. It is often intentionally planted along walkways and near the front doors of houses. And of course, to make things difficult, many of the tree species start out with needles very much like the low-spreading shrubs and only develop their scale-like needle structure as they age.

The trunk and branches of both types tend to have a reddish look to them, the outer bark peeling off in strips all on its own, giving the plant a rather shaggy, disreputable look. The needles on the shrubby species, primarily
Juniperus communis
, are exceedingly sharp, a bit blue-green in color, and somewhat similar to the needles on pines, firs, and spruce species. The needles on the tree species are more similar to those on some types of true cypress and cedar species, having an overlapping, scale type of growth, really not much like those of the pines, spruce, and firs.