Diarrhoea not responding to antibiotics? Guava leaves to your rescue!
One of our earlier blog’s ‘FMR’S WORK TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING THE ANTIDIARRHOEAL ACTIVITY OF GUAVA LEAVES’ mentioned the potential of guava leaf as a promising anti-diarrhoeal herbal remedy. The diarrhoea causing bacteria used for these studies were simple laboratory strains that could be killed by commonly used antibiotics. Hence, as an extension of this work, we further checked if the decoction prepared from guava leaves could also be effective against bacteria from diarrhoeal patients where in recommended antibiotics had failed to work.
Shigella is a germ that causes blood-associated diarrhoeal episodes. Infection due to this pathogen can, at times, be life-threatening and treatment with antibiotics is thus necessary. However, as is the case with several other disease causing bacteria, antibiotic resistance amongst Shigella species is increasing at an alarming rate. This bacterium was thus an obvious choice for our experiments.
The study with 43 multidrug-resistant clinical isolates of Shigella obtained from St. John’s Research Institute, Bengaluru and Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai showed that guava leaves could affect over 75% of the resistant Shigella isolates. Amongst these, it was noted that Shigella flexneri, the most common species of this bacterium, was more sensitive to the decoction.
The results highlight the ability of guava decoction to treat diarrhoea caused by antibiotic resistant Shigella species. Additionally, unlike antibiotics, a plant decoction has multiple chemical compounds that synergistically act together on the germs, chances of the bacteria developing resistance to it are minimal. The development of resistance in plant based treatment of diarrhoeal diseases is therefore very unlikely.
The findings are encouraging as alternatives are urgently required due to the fading ‘golden era’ of antibiotics.
The study was funded by Zoetis Pharmaceuticals Research Private Limited, India.
