HERBAL ALTERNATIVES TO ANTIBIOTIC DRUGS

Antibiotic drugs have been in use for less than a century and, although it must be said that in their advent they were a great medicinal breakthrough, in latter years, or decades, they have been subject to excessive and often inappropriate usage.

Many herbs have antibiotic properties; most, if used sensibly, have no side effects, they include: Garlic, Golden Seal, Chiretta and Echinacea.

GARLIC: Recent research was conducted into the antibiotic properties of certain herbs, the result showed Garlic to be an extremely potent antibiotic, antibacterial and antiviral agent. In Mediterranean countries where Garlic is consumed in vast quantities, it is shown that there are less cases of life threatening disorders (including cancers and heart disease).

GOLDEN SEAL: One of the most powerful, and expensive herbs in the Western herbal pharmacopoeia. Golden Seal is now endangered in the wild.

Early settlers in the Americas learned of the attributes of Golden Seal from Native American people who used the root in their medicines.

Ideally Golden Seal should be treated as an antibiotic and immune stimulant and therefore have a restricted usage of 5-7 days each time. Its action is tonic, laxative, cleansing and mildly stimulating; it aids digestion and has a cooling effect on mucous membranes.

CHIRETTA: is an herb, which grows in India, Pakistan, Thailand, China and other eastern countries; it was considered to be responsible for ending the 1919 flu epidemic in India, an epidemic that killed more people than the First World War.

Chiretta has been referred to as ‘Indian Echinacea’ in that it has similarly powerful properties as an immune stimulant and has been used by Ayurvedic doctors to treat virtually every toxic disorder from snakebite to cancer. Scientific tests have shown that Chiretta has a ‘cytotoxic’ (cell killing) effect against cancer cells1 and in cases of breast cancer is found to inhibit the growth of cancer cells as efficiently as the drug tamoxafen but without the accompanying side effects found with the drug.2

ECHINACEA: is now becoming a household word and has earned itself a place of prominence in the medicine cabinets of the health conscious as a blood and lymph purifier, an antibiotic, anti-fungal and antiviral remedy.

Echinacea was probably first used by the Pawnee Indians in the treatment of snakebite, earning it the name  ‘Kansas Snake Root’.

Acknowledgements:

Bartimeus. Paula, Andrographis. Health Science (The Newsletter of the Health Sciences Institute) May 2002.

McKenna, Dr. John, Alternatives to Antibiotics. Gill & Macmillan.

Wren. R.C., Potter’s New Cyclopaedia of Botanical Drugs and Preparations. C.W.Daniels Co. Ltd. 1988.

John E. Smith B.A. (Hons.) M:URHP, Dip. CH. is a Qualified herbal practitioner. He is the author of two books: “100 Herbs of Power” and “Food, Herbs, Health & Healing” both published by Strategic Book Publishers, New York. (links below) www.strategicbookpublishing.com/100HerbsOfPower.html http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/FoodsHerbsHealthAndHealing.html Web Address: www.herbalkhemy.com

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1 Balch, P.A. Prescriptions for Herbal Healing. P.21. Avery 2002.

2 Holt, Stephen M.D., Comac, Linda. Miracle Herbs; How Herbs Combine with Modern Medicine to Treat Cancer, Heart Disease, AIDS and More. Caro Publishing Group, 1998.