http://www.lef.org/whatshot/2008_03.htm#Green-Tea-Fights-SuperbugsFast on the heels of research that demonstrated green tea's potential as an anti-bioterrorism weapon, Egyptian scientists revealed this week that the drink can also help boost the activity of antibiotics against treatment-resistant bacteria, or "superbugs" that have emerged as a major challenge to 21st century medical science. The finding was reported at the at the Society for General Microbiology’s 162nd meeting, held at the Edinburgh National Conference Centre from March 31 to April 4, 2008.
Green tea is consumed by many Egyptians, yet its potential interaction with antibiotic treatment had not been evaluated. “We tested green tea in combination with antibiotics against 28 disease causing micro-organisms belonging to two different classes,” Dr Mervat Kassem of Alexandria University's Faculty of Pharmacy explained. “In every single case green tea enhanced the bacteria-killing activity of the antibiotics. For example the killing effect of chloramphenicol was 99.99% better when taken with green tea than when taken on its own in some circumstances.”
One of the drugs enhanced by green tea belongs to a class of broad-spectrum antibiotics known as cephalosporins, which newly evolved strains of bacteria are able to resist. Twenty percent of drug-resistant bacteria tested were found to be susceptible to the antibiotic's effects when its forces were combined with green tea.
Tea appears to lower bacterial drug resistance while increasing the action of antibiotics, sometimes at low concentrations. “Our results show that we should consider more seriously the natural products we consume in our everyday life,” Dr Kassem stated. “In the future, we will be looking at other natural herb products such as marjoram and thyme to see whether they also contain active compounds which can help in the battle against drug resistant bacteria”.
—D Dye
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