Natural Antibiotics

What are natural antibiotics?

Characteristics / properties of natural antibiotics

List of natural antibiotics

References

What are natural antibiotics?

Many herbs and foods have antibiotic properties. A long tradition of natural herbal medicines and home remedies goes back to the earliest days of Homo sapiens. This encyclopaedia of traditional herbal remedies has mostly been lost in today's world of patented pharmaceutical medicines.

My favourite natural antibiotic is garlic. It has potent local ability if garlic is placed next to a source of infection, and it also has systemic ability so when you consume it your entire body has a low level of natural antibiotic circulating.

Sugar is another natural antibiotic which we should be aware of. Throughout Grow Youthful I keep repeating how harmful sugar is and how we must eliminate it from our diets. However as an antibiotic, especially in intractable festering non-healing wounds, sugar is a life-saver. See the text and link further down in this page.

Most pharmaceutical antibiotics which are prescribed to be taken internally are not just unnecessary but are actually harmful. A damaged biome is at the root of most degenerative diseases. However there are a few cases in which pharmaceutical antibiotics are life-saving. When infected with a deadly pathogenic infection or fast-replicating bacteria the consequences of not treating it may be life-threatening or life-changing. In this unusual case, pharmaceutical antibiotics at the correct dose and for the correct length of time are essential. When the skin is pierced or broken in a hospital setting, the application to the skin of a liquid antibiotic spray or wipe is standard procedure and appropriate with so many antibiotic-resistant microorganisms present.

Characteristics / properties of natural antibiotics

• Side-effects if any, are often positive. This is the opposite of pharmaceutical antibiotics which always have negative side-effects.
• Natural antibiotics are often effective against antibiotic-resistant microorganisms. When pharmaceutical antibiotics no longer work, natural antibiotics are often effective.
• Sometimes natural antibiotics are not as potent or fast-acting as pharmaceutical antibiotics, so they have to be used for longer periods, and they may not kill the most dangerous fast-acting infections.

List of natural antibiotics

• Castor oil.
• Cloves. Cloves can be consumed whole, as a spice, or in the form of clove essential oil.
• Coconut oil.
• Colloidal silver.
• DMSO.
• Essential oils (EOs) have long been used for their antibacterial, fungicidal, larvicidal, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-tumour and other properties. Among the 250 EOs which are commercially available, about a dozen have potent antimicrobial ability. However, the most valuable use of EOs is as an alternative to synthetic pharmaceutical antibiotics against which pathogenic microorganisms are developing resistance. Lemongrass, eucalyptus, peppermint and orange EOs are potent anti-bacterials, with palmarosa, patchouli, ageratum, citronella and geranium also being effective. Note: tea tree and manuka EOs are potent anti-fungals. (4, 5)
• Faecal microbial transplantation, which has an antibiotic effect by providing microorganisms which counter yeasts or bacteria which have proliferated out of control.
• Garlic. A potent antibiotic. Particularly effective in dealing with tooth pain, infected teeth and abscesses. It is the number one remedy for tooth pain voted by Grow Youthful's visitors.
• Honey, with the most effective type being Manuka honey made by bees using the Leptospermum sarcopenia plant which is common in Australia and New Zealand.
• Iodine.
• Kerosene.
• Lemongrass.
• Magnesium.
• Neem oil.
• Oil pulling. Not exactly an antibiotic, but a good way of pulling infective microorganisms out of your mouth, teeth, gums and throat.
• Onion.
• Probiotics have an antibiotic effect by providing microorganisms which counter yeasts or bacteria which have proliferated out of control. Probiotics help repair a damaged biome by re-introducing diversity with a population of microorganisms which are likely to be helpful rather than harmful. For example, many kinds of skin infections and allergies respond well to the application of live probiotics such as home-made sauerkraut or strong home-made kombucha. Store- bought probiotic foods and drinks are usually not successful because they are made in a factory using standardised laboratory cultures. For example, a factory-made yogurt may contain just one or two microorganisms, compared to a natural (not laboratory) kefir which usually contains 30 or more different microorganisms. Kefir grains and kombucha cultures both produce their own antibiotics.
• Pure gum turpentine.
• The Sugar cure uses sugar in a process somewhat similar to oil pulling.
• Sugar as an antibiotic in wounds, ulcers and infections including infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
• Sulforaphane. The richest source of this phytonutrient is broccoli sprouts; it is also found in other cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, cress, horseradish, kohlrabi, radish and turnip. The sprouts of these vegetables have between 10 and 100 times more sulforaphane than the mature vegetable. Sulforaphane can be used to treat antibiotic-resistant microorganisms and infections. Sulforaphane is a potent anti-inflammatory which makes it a useful treatment for many chronic degenerative diseases. It is also a cancer treatment, an antioxidant, improves blood vessels, maintains brain health and slows ageing. (1, 6)
• Sulphur, taken in sulphur-rich foods like egg yolks, garlic and onions, or as flowers of sulphur, or by using MSM (methylsulfonylmethane).
• Tamarind.
• Tea tree oil.
• Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium). Antifungal, antibacterial, antiparasitic. (2, 3)

Your comments about any of your experiences - positive or negative - with your use of natural antibiotics are welcome at Grow Youthful. I am always curious about your use of and experience with natural remedies, and your feedback is very welcome.

References

1. Jed W Fahey, Xavier Haristoy, Patrick M Dolan, Alain Lozniewski. Sulforaphane inhibits extracellular, intracellular, and antibiotic-resistant strains of Helicobacter pylori and prevents benzo[a]pyrene-induced stomach tumors. PNAS Biological Sciences, 28 May 2002. 99 (11) 7610-7615. doi/10.1073/pnas.112203099.

2. Moslemi HR, Hoseinzadeh H, Badouei MA, Kafshdouzan K, Fard RM. Antimicrobial Activity of Artemisia absinthium Against Surgical Wounds Infected by Staphylococcus aureus in a Rat Model. Indian J Microbiol. 2012 Dec;52(4):601-4. doi: 10.1007/s12088-012-0283-x. Epub 2012 Jun 27. PMID: 24293717; PMCID: PMC3516646.

3. Ahameethunisa AR, Hopper W. Antibacterial activity of Artemisia nilagirica leaf extracts against clinical and phytopathogenic bacteria. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2010 Jan 29;10:6. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-10-6. PMID: 20109237; PMCID: PMC2830175.

4. Winska K, Maczka W, Lyczko J, Grabarczyk M, Czubaszek A, Szumny A. Essential Oils as Antimicrobial Agents-Myth or Real Alternative? Molecules. 2019 Jun 5;24(11):2130. doi: 10.3390/molecules24112130. PMID: 31195752; PMCID: PMC6612361.

5. Pattnaik S, Subramanyam VR, Kole C. Antibacterial and antifungal activity of ten essential oils in vitro. Microbios. 1996;86(349):237-46. PMID: 8893526.

6. Angelica Galieni, Beatrice Falcinelli, Fabio Stagnari, Alessandro Datti, Paolo Benincasa. Sprouts and Microgreens: Trends, Opportunities and Horizons for Novel Research. Agronomy 19 September 2020, 10(9), 1424; doi 10.3390/agronomy10091424.