The Multidrug Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bug was first uncovered in 1961. Anyone who has been within half a mile of a television or a newspaper in the last year will know that the bug is now a serious threat to hospital patients, and that it is now ubiquitously referred to as a 'superbug' in the national media. In the US deaths resulting from the bug rose from 127,000 in 1999 to 278,000 in 2005, a figure which suggests that it claims more lives than the HIV virus. In the UK the bug is believed to have caused 1,652 deaths in 2006, a dramatic increase on the 1993's level of 51.
The Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) has conducted a study which successfully shows that MRSA colonies can be eradicated through extracts from natural plants. The elecampane (Inula helenium) plant and the pasque flower were used to take extracts from by researches. These extracts were then tested against 300 varieties of bacteria, including MRSA, and were found to be highly effective in combating the bacteria, according to the Irish Examiner.
Elecampane is a brilliant yellow, perennial wildflower that is found throughout central and southern Europe, including England and Ireland, whilst pasque, which blooms around Easter, is found throughout North America and Eurasia. Another flower, P. vulgaris, a type of buttercup native to western and southern europe, has also been found by the study to be effective in combating the bug. The 35,000 euro research project has placed all of the plants at the forefront of a battle that no first-line antibiotics can win.
This research puts into context the recent findings by the European Environment Agency which showed that the continent was undergoing a period of declining biodiversity. Climate change, intensive agricultural production, over-exploitation of soils, forests and water systems as well as the invasions of alien species have all led to this situation. The EEA argue that the continent is currently unlikely to reach its goal of halting biodiversity loss by 2010 without momentous policy efforts. Surely CIT's research shows the massive potential that biodiversity offers for medical advances, a potential which will be squandered if the raw material, the diverse biological natural wealth that existed here long before our cities and our intensive farming practices, are lost.
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This post was written by Matthew Gammie on June 10, 2008