Bartonella research studies - must read

"So while I'm hiding in the bathroom from an evil mosquito" 🤣🤣

Thanks for the studies! Going to check them out later today.

Good luck with the mosquito!

the second one is quite well known - from Ying Zhang's group who are doing a lot of work on bart persisters

Results
We evaluated 14 antibiotics and 25 antibiotic combinations for activity against stationary phase B. henselae (all antibiotics were at 5 μg/ml) and found that ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, and nitrofurantoin were the most active agents, while clofazimine and miconazole had poor activity. Drug combinations azithromycin/ciprofloxacin, azithromycin/methylene blue, rifampin/ciprofloxacin, and rifampin/methylene blue could rapidly kill stationary phase B. henselae with no detectable CFU after 1-day exposure. Methylene blue and rifampin were the most active agents against the biofilm B. henselae after 6 days of drug exposure.Antibiotic combinations (azithromycin/ciprofloxacin, azithromycin/methylene blue, rifampin/ciprofloxacin, rifampin/methylene blue) completely eradicated the biofilm B. henselae after treatment for 6 days.

I noticed they used an alcohol tincture of Cryptolepis, I actually made a thread about this a while ago. It seems that water is a better solvent than alcohol for Cryptolepis:

I hope it helps someone:

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=4259578

I did skinny_joe.

It didn't do much.

I think you might need to extract the contents with a solvent like water or alcohol in order for it to work.

Or maybe it just didn't have an effect on me.

I took a lot too.

RainyCloud said...
I noticed they used an alcohol tincture of Cryptolepis, I actually made a thread about this a while ago. It seems that water is a better solvent than alcohol for Cryptolepis:

I hope it helps someone:

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=4259578

actually the way i interpret the time-kill curves in the 1st study - the 60% alcohol content Cryptolepis tinctures were the strongest for Bart - in that it killed all Bart persisters in the shortest time
see the graph here
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2020/08/23/2020.08.19.256768/F2.large.jpg

in buhners books he makes clear that Cryptolepis can also be used as a decoction/tea - but the solubility of the active components is very much influenced by the acidity or lack of it in the water
many alkaloids are only soluble in acidic water - and so vinegar or lemon juice is typically used in the water to aid solubility -

i have used Cryptolepis like this in the past as a tea - and can confirm it works OK - but i prefer the tinctures now for convenience and precision in dosing as herxes can be strong and control of the dose is helpful.

Note a tablespoon/ 15ml of vinegar per 500ml of menstruum is used in tincturing this herb - esp if in a hard water area - for the above reasons - the tincture recipe is typically 1:5 60% alcohol - and care must be taken to finely grind the herb as bits of the root are very tough and resilient

its possible the Zhang study may have had even more favourable outcomes if they has acidified the water in the alcohol extract mix

Thank you Garzie.

I got some Cryptolepis root and would like to make a tea.
Problem is, it's the actual intact root and I don't know to grind it.
Do I need one of those expensive blenders? I hope not. They cost a lot of money.

Once I figure out how to grind them, do I put it in one of those tea infusers?
Because I do have one of those.

Final question, is there an alternative to vinegar besides alcohol? I'm worried about it containing gluten.

Thank you so much!

Hi Rainy

ref alternative to vinegar - i think you mean to acidify water for tea? - yes any food safe acid will work - the key thing is to get a low pH - lemon juice is one option.
i have even used vitamin c when i ran out of vinegar before - or apple cider vinegar or distilled vinegar is an option if is the gluten you are wary of.
in terms of dose - lemon juice or vinegar - i would use 10ml per mug of tea - or something in that region.
when i have used vitamin c i used 1-2g of pure vit c powder per 500ml of tincture liquid.

regarding boiling herbs for teas
the advice varies somewhat deepening on the herb and its form - for instance some dense roots that are used in cut or large chip type forms are typically boiled for little while / whereas most leaves and powdered herbs( smaller particles ) are typically only brought to the boil then turned off the second it boils or just boiling water poured over so technically not boiled.

in essence what's happening is here is that there will be a balance between extracting the maximum amount of active ingredients from the plant material the hotter the water and the longer the boil - but then boiling also destroys many active ingredients and the longer the boil the more is destroyed.
so general advice is seeking to strike a balance

the Chinese take most herbs as teas and the general practice there is to bring to the point of boil and turn off immediately so as not to boil the herb for any period of time.

in reality the optimum will vary a bit depending on the specific herb and the heat stability of its active chemicals and their solubility. most people develop their own preference and stick to it.

in practice i would use the Chinese method for most herbs - or just poor boiling water over any that are finely powdered - i have done this with Cryptolepis and it worked fine

ref grinding - i have used a variety of methods / devices - but Cryptolepis is one of the tougher roots and you need something with a bit of power to grind it - i use a cheap blender from Amazon - i just bought one that was cheap with a glass jug (not a big fan of plastic in food prep) and even then i found it best to cut it up into 1/2 inch lengths first with pliers/side cutters. i have also used small coffee/herb grinders before - which worked fine also - just had to grind in small batches - and be mind full that if it stops the rotors the motor will burn out pretty quick. it need not be expensive
the blender i use now was around £30 - and i had managed to do quite a few batches with a £10 ebay Chinese coffee/spice grinder thing!

happy to help Rainy - ref blenders - cheaper ones tend to have small and easily overheated motors - so i just grind small batches and give them a chance to rest and cool down after every 30 seconds on for instance -