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How garlic can prevent a tummy Ingredient '100 times more powerful at fighting food poisoning than antibiotics
A garlic ingredient is 100 times more powerful
than two popular antibiotics at fighting one of the leading causes of food
poisoning, say scientists.
The compound, diallyl sulphide, is able to
pierce a protective 'biofilm' employed by the food bug that makes it hard to
destroy.
Tests showed diallyl sulphide was as effective
as 100 times bigger doses of the antibiotics erythromycin and
ciprofloxacin.
It was also able to work in a fraction of the
time taken by the drugs.The discovery
is said to open the door to new treatments for raw and processed meats, and food
preparation surfaces.
'This is the first step in developing or
thinking about new intervention strategies,' said researcher Dr Michael Konkel,
from Washington State University in the US, who has been investigating
Campylobacter for 25 years.
'Campylobacter is simply the most common
bacterial cause of food-borne illness in the United States and probably the
world.'
Symptoms of Campylobacter infection include
diarrhoea, cramping, abdominal pain and fever.
The bacteria also trigger nearly a third of
cases of a rare paralysing disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Most Campylobacter infections stem from eating
raw or undercooked poultry or foods that have been cross-contaminated via dirty
surfaces and utensils.
The research is published in the Journal of
Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
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