Wildflower Extracts Shown to Kill MRSA

[mixin]

Wildflower Extracts Easily Kill MRSA Superbug
By David Gutierrez
Natural News, June 6, 2008
Straight to the Source

Extracts from two Eurasian wildflowers are highly effective at killing the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to a study conducted by researchers at the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) in Ireland.

Researchers found that extracts from Inula helenium (commonly known as elecampane, horse-heal or marchalan) eliminated 100 percent of MRSA colonies upon exposure.

I. helenium and another wildflower, known as Pulsatilla vulgaris or pasque flower, were tested against 300 different varieties of staphylococci bacteria, including MRSA. P. vulgaris also proved "highly effective" against MRSA, according to an article in the "Irish Examiner."

MRSA is resistant to all first-line antibiotics, making it more likely that staph infections caused by the bug will proceed for longer without treatment and spread from the skin to other parts of the body. This makes MRSA correspondingly more lethal than other staph infections. The increasing prevalence and lethality of MRSA in hospitals, schools, prisons and other institutional settings across the United States has made the superbug an issue of increasing concern for health officials.

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that MRSA infected nearly 100,000 people in the United States in 2005 and killed 18,650 people. Roughly 16,000 people died from AIDS in the same year.

I. helenium is a bright yellow, tall perennial wildflower that grows throughout central and southern Europe and throughout western and central Asia as far east as the Himalayas. It blossoms in the late summer. P. vulgaris, a member of the buttercup family, produces bell-shaped flowers in early spring. The wildflower is found throughout western, central and southern Europe. Both flowers grow wild in Ireland and Great Britain.

The research on the wildflower extracts was carried out by a postgraduate student under the supervision of a CIT professor and a senior medical scientist from the microbiology department of Cork University Hospital.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_12791.cfm

[Sunshine123]

Re: Wildflower Extracts Shown to Kill MRSA

Thank you Lord.

[teederkee]

Re: Wildflower Extracts Shown to Kill MRSA

Is this extract a topical cleanser or to be taken internally to fight infections? If it's for external applications, I would suggest that there are several other substances that kill MRSA on contact, when used correctly. I didn't get that information from the post or from Internet searches for more details.

The biggest issue with infectious agents such as MRSA, VRE and C.difficile is that people are not employing regular practices such as handwashing and surface cleansing that should be the first line in outbreak prevention.

T

[cartski]

Re: Wildflower Extracts Shown to Kill MRSA

Is this extract a topical cleanser or to be taken internally to fight infections? If it's for external applications, I would suggest that there are several other substances that kill MRSA on contact, when used correctly. I didn't get that information from the post or from Internet searches for more details.

The biggest issue with infectious agents such as MRSA, VRE and C.difficile is that people are not employing regular practices such as handwashing and surface cleansing that should be the first line in outbreak prevention.

T

Good point.

Should prosepective hospital patient's go on a wildflower diet before surgery?

J.

[Sunshine123]

Re: Wildflower Extracts Shown to Kill MRSA

Good point.

Should prosepective hospital patient's go on a wildflower diet before surgery?

J.

I take the above news piece to state that the MRSA was grown on a petri dish, like a culture and sensitivity. The MRSA was sensitive to Inula Helenium, 100%. In other words the MRSA did not grow. But I have not seen a copy of the original study.

This makes sense since MRSA probably has never been exposed to a flower in the Himalayas and therefore not resistant.

If your quick you can make a batch of tea and sell it to the hospitals for a small fortune. The medicine would be applied as a salve not taken internally (Inula Helenium may not be compatable w/ humans too).

[safran]

Re: Wildflower Extracts Shown to Kill MRSA

the second flower : pulsatilla is toxic for humans.

inula exists in Europe, and is used in tea for therapeutic effects.

Related Terms:
Alant, alant camphor, alantolactone, alantopicrin, Asteraceae (family), Aster helenium (L.) Scop., Aster officinalis All., Compositae (family), dammaradienol, dammaradienyl acetate, elecampane, elecampane camphor, elfwort, eudesmanes, eudesmanolides, friedelin, germacrane, helenin, helenin camphor, Helenium grandiflorum Gilib., horseheal, inula, Inula campana, inula camphor, Inula helenium, Inula racemosa, inulin, isoalantolactone, isocostunolide, mucilage, scabwort, sesquiterpenes, sitosterols, stigmasterol, thymol derivatives, yellow starwort.

Evidence
Elecampane is a tall wildflower with oversized pointed leaves and yellow to orange daisy-like flowers. The root has been used in traditional herbal medicine.
Elecampane is a natural source of food flavoring in Europe and is approved for use in alcoholic beverages in the United States.
Traditionally, elecampane is used as an antifungal, antiparasitic, and general antimicrobial agent, as well as an expectorant for coughs, colds, and bronchial ailments. At this time, there is a lack of evidence from randomized, controlled trials to support these uses.

http://www.naturalstandard.com/index-abstract.asp?create-abstract=/monographs/herbssupplements/elecampane.asp

[mixin]

Re: Wildflower Extracts Shown to Kill MRSA

I spent quite a lot of time looking for the actual study and have not yet found it.

Here is some information on Pulsatilla vulgaris:

http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Pulsatilla+vulgaris

The plant is slightly toxic, the toxins are dissipated by heat or by drying the plant. Repeated handling of the plant can cause skin irritation in some people.
Pasque flower is considered by herbalists to be of highly valuable modern curative use as a herbal simple. The plant contains the glycoside ranunculin, this is converted to anemonine when the plant is dried and is the medicinally active principle in the plant.

The whole plant is alterative, antispasmodic, diaphoretic, diuretic, emmenagogue, expectorant, nervine and sedative. It is taken internally in the treatment of pre-menstrual syndrome, inflammations of the reproductive organs, tension headaches, neuralgia, insomnia, hyperactivity, bacterial skin infections, septicaemia, spasmodic coughs in asthma, whooping cough and bronchitis. Externally, it is used to treat eye conditions such as diseases of the retina, senile cataract and glaucoma. This remedy should be used with caution, excessive doses cause diarrhoea and vomiting. It should not be prescribed to patients with colds. See also the notes above on toxicity. The plant is harvested soon after flowering, it is more poisonous when fresh and so should be carefully preserved by drying. It should not be stored for longer than 12 months before being used.

In homeopathy, the plant is considered to be specific in the treatment of measles. It is also used for treating nettle rash, toothache, earache and bilious indigestion.

http://www.herbcompanion.com/Herb-Profiles/AN-HERB-TO-KNOW-Betsy-Strauch.aspx?page=2:

The seventeenth-century British herbalist John Parkinson mentions several species of Pulsatilla as being useful in treating tertian ague (probably malaria) and ?obstructions?. Maud Grieve, writing in 1931, recommends a tincture of pulsatilla (the whole herb of P. vulgaris or P. pratensis) for relieving headaches and neuralgia, as well as ?nerve exhaustion? in women, adding, ?It is specially recommended for fair, blue-eyed women.?

P. patens, used medicinally by Native Americans, was included in the U.S. Pharmacopeia as a diuretic, expectorant, and uterine stimulant from 1882 to 1905. The Chinese have used P. chinensis for 2,000 years and consider it to be anti-*inflammatory, astringent, and antibacterial. Homeopaths have used extremely dilute solutions of various species to treat eye and skin diseases, delayed menstruation, measles, nettle rash, toothache, earache, indigestion, and respiratory problems.

Despite their long history of medicinal use, all species of Pulsatilla are quite toxic. Contact with the plant sap can blister the skin, chewing the fresh tops can inflame and blister the mouth and throat, while ingestion can provoke bloody vomiting and diarrhea, even convulsions.

[Oracle]

Re: Wildflower Extracts Shown to Kill TB, too.

Elecampane active ingredients include sesquiterpenes - they would be the drug target structures of interest; elegant synthetic schemes have been developed in recent years that improve yield and reduce costs. Natural sesquiterpenes appear to work best in combinations, perhaps because they act on a spectrum of cellular targets to induce apoptosis in infected cells.

Elecampane is grown as a crop in the US; it's used to make Absinthe.