The rise in antibiotic resistant bacteria, also known as “superbugs” has led to an increased interest in medicinal plants/herbs to find ways to treat antibiotic resistant diseases and offer an alternative to increasingly ineffective drugs. It is frightening to know that bacteria now can fight the weapons we created to destroy them. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Antibiotic resistance is one of the most urgent threats to the public’s health. Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them. Each year in the United States, at least 2 million people get infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and at least 23,000 people die as a result. (CDC, 2018). That is a large number of people and quite frankly it is very disappointing to find out that CDC, FDA, WHO, UN and other national/international organization did not take this matter seriously a lot sooner and did not take urgent corrective and protective measures.
Ilustration from the United Nations Environmental publication
The relationship between the environment and the growing antibiotic resistance.
The United Nations Environment Program explains that human exposure to environmental bacteria and to antibiotic resistance genes can take place through drinking water, food consumption or through direct contact with the environment (UN, 2017, p. 13). The fact that we are exposed to more resistant bacteria not only through the use of prescription antibiotics (with our consent) but through other multiple ways (without our consent) i.e. food, water, and air, the spread of drug-resistant pathogens is accelerated and we are speeding to a post antibiotic era. The misuse and overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals, the intensive farming practice, the misuse by the food industry, and its presence in our water supply unfortunately led to the emergence of antimicrobial- resistant bacteria strains.
WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, once stated that the development of resistance is an inevitable biological process that will happen with every drug. The use of any antibiotic alters over the years the fitness of microorganisms in a phenomenon known as selective pressure were the ones that survive carry genes for resistance (Chan, 2011). These antimicrobial resistant bacteria will then transfer this ability to other susceptible bacteria strains growing the number of resistant organisms. Herbs present hope and plenty of possibilities in the fight against drug resistant bacteria, as they have a much more complex chemistry than antibiotics and make it difficult for the bacteria to develop resistance. According to Gupta and Birdi, due to the multiple and/or chemically complex phytochemicals present in plant extracts, bacteria are unable to easily develop resistance (Gupta & Birdi, 2017, p. 266). Thus, herbs play a huge role in addressing the globally rising antimicrobial resistant bacteria threat thanks to the synergistic actions of the hundreds to thousands of compounds existing in each herb.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Be Antibiotics Aware: Smart Use, Best Care. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/features/antibioticuse/index.html
United Nations Environment Program. (2017). Frontiers 2017: Emerging Issues of Environmental Concern. Retrieved from https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/22255/Frontiers_2017_EN.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
World Heath Organization. (2011). Combat drug resistance: no action today means no cure tomorrow. Retried from https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2011/whd_20110407/en/
Gupta, P. D., & Birdi, T. J. (2017). Development of botanicals to combat antibiotic resistance. Journal of Ayurveda and integrative medicine, 8(4), 266-275. doi: 10.1016/j.jaim.2017.05.004
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