Cinnamon oil would protect us against superbugs
Day by day Antibiotic resistance keeps on raising concerns around the world. Every year, in the U.S., nearly 2 million people infected with super bugs. Now, an Australian researcher is concentrating on traditional agents to alter the behavior of bacteria instead of killing bacteria. Researcher Dr. Sanjida Halim Topa from SwinBurne University of Technology investigated a noteworthy compound in cinnamon oil.
The compound, “cinnamaldehyde”, restrains the development of biofilm, a sticky film of bacteria, like the plaque that forms on teeth that can cause persistent infections, which oppose even the most intense antibiotics.
There is an urgent research to create alternatives to antibiotics to treat chronic biofilm-mediated infections, such as may happen with urinary catheters and artificial joints.
Antimicrobial activity of cinnamon oil
Topa stated that, several previous studies have detailed that the antimicrobial activity of cinnamon oil is not widely used in the pharmaceutical industry. While, we intended to look for the molecular activity of this oil, mainly focusing on its major component, cinnamaldehyde. This is the compound that gives cinnamon its flavor.
We speculated that utilizing natural antimicrobials, like essential oils, may interfere in biofilm formation. Subsequently, we concentrated on the effect of various concentrations of cinnamaldehyde in different biofilm development stages.
While, the researcher tested the impact of different concentrations of cinnamaldehyde on biofilms formed from the pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain of bacteria. She found that a sub-lethal concentration of cinnamaldehyde controlled the scattering of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the development of biofilm.
From the past several years, people across the world using natural products to treat infections, and there is a renewed focus around such antimicrobial compounds. So, this latest medical research and natural products may offer a promising solution to this problem.
