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Civil War-era medicines could fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria today
The CDC considers antibiotic-resistant bacteria to be one of the biggest health challenges of our time.
That’s because with more and more strains of bacteria becoming resistant to available drugs, more than 2 million people get an antibiotic-resistant infection each year, resulting in about 23,000 deaths annually.
Now, thanks to research at Emory University, help for the antibiotic-resistant infection epidemic may have been discovered in the most unlikely of ways — not in cutting edge medical techniques or the latest drug development — but in the past…
Believe it or not, Civil War-era medications could help you beat your next infection.
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Research ordered by the Confederate surgeon general
During the very first year of the American Civil war — 1861 — President Abraham Lincoln was forced to order a blockade of all Confederate ports.
By keeping cargo ships out, the Union was able to stop trade, put a halt to both imports and exports, and deal a death blow to the Confederate economy.
At the same time though, this blockade also prevented needed medicine from making it to the Confederate Army. You might be surprised to find out that experts estimate that of all deaths during the war, roughly two-thirds of Confederate soldiers died due to wound infections, not in combat.
Because of this medication shortage, the Surgeon General of the Confederacy ordered a medical researcher and Army doctor to find medicinal alternatives using plants native to the area. The researcher, Francis Porcher, delved into plants that were used by the Native Americans and wrote his guide, called “Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests.”
According to the Emory University researchers, Porcher’s work was responsible for saving lives and limbs and preventing the spread of infection throughout the rest of the war.
Ancient practice, modern research
Because of this, the team at Emory decided to test whether some of those plants used to stave off infection during the Civil War could have modern applications. They tested three specific plants:
- The white oak
- The tulip poplar
- The devil’s walking stick (Aralia spinosa, also known as prickly ash)
And, they found that all three plants had the ability to combat infection.
Related: 9 Antibiotic alternatives you need to have on hand
According to the researchers, the plants were microbial and worked to overcome the most common causes of wound infections including Staphylococcus aureus (the worst and most dangerous offender in the Staph family), Acinetobacter baumannii, and Klebsiella pneumoniae (a deadly form of pneumonia).
“Plants have evolved this amazing array of chemicals that can serve as defense compounds to protect themselves from pathogens, herbivores, and insects,” said the senior author of the paper, Cassandra Quave, professor of dermatology and human health at Emory University. “There’s this idea in traditional medicines that you can use those same defense compounds as medicines to treat human ailments.”
How do they work against antibiotic resistance?
The researchers say that while traditional antibiotics actually kill bacteria off to slow their growth (a factor that promotes antibiotic resistance), these plant compounds work differently.
Instead of killing the bacteria, they stop the bacteria from producing what’s known as a biofilm – the substance that allows the bacteria to stick together or to other surfaces. And, they also disrupt the release of chemical signals by the bacteria that allow them to coordinate their gene expression and ensure conditions that allow them to grow unhindered.
“I think it’s important to look towards our past to try to understand better how these treatments worked,” Quave said. “We can leverage that historic knowledge to develop better, innovative therapies for the future.”
It’s interesting that you can already find a few of these Civil War-era medicinal plants in extract form and one day, we could be using them to defeat antibiotic-resistant bacteria for good.
Sources:
- Antibiotic / Antimicrobial Resistance (AR / AMR) — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Civil War-Era Plant Medicines Could Help Fight Drug-Resistant Bacteria, Study Finds — VICE
By Dr. Adria Schmedthorst
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