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Where chemists have failed, nature has come to our rescue.
Humans have overused antibiotics for decades, creating more and more dangerous bacteria that are immune to our drugs.
Now researchers at Portsmouth University in England and Naresuan and Pibulsongkram Rajabhat universities in Thailand have found that hydroquinine, a compound in the bark of the cinchona tree, is able to dispatch a range of bacteria, including strains of staph, e. coli, and pneumonia bacteria.
In tests, it also killed a nasty bug called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which causes infections in the blood and lungs. It kills half the people whose bloodstreams it infects.
The cinchona tree, also known as the “fever tree,” yields quinine, a common antimalarial drug and grows commonly in Latin America, the Caribbean, and parts of western Africa.
The researchers urge additional studies with the goal of using, and eventually synthesizing, hydroquinine as a next-generation super-antibiotic.
TRENDPOST: Antibiotic resistance killed 4.95 million people worldwide in 2019, according to an international research study carried out by universities and medical centers.
Scientists searching for alternatives to today’s antibiotics that are losing their power are turning increasingly to nature as it reveals more and more effective alternatives.