Additional Essential Oils with High Activity against Stationary Phase Borrelia burgdorferi

Garlic and Cinnamaldehyde (the active ingredient in cinnamon bark) sterilized the B. burgdorferi stationary phase culture as shown by no regrowth during 21-day subculture.


"Lyme disease is the most common vector borne-disease in the US. While the majority of the Lyme disease patients can be cured with the standard 2-4 week antibiotic treatment, about 10-20% of patients continue to suffer from persisting symptoms. While the cause of this condition is unclear, persistent infection was proposed as one possibility. It has recently been shown that B. burgdorferi develops dormant persisters in stationary phase cultures that are not killed by the current Lyme antibiotics, and there is interest to identify novel drug candidates that more effectively kill such forms. We previously evaluated 34 essential oils and identified some highly active candidates with excellent activity against biofilm and stationary phase B. burgdorferi. Here we screened another 35 essential oils and found 10 essential oils (garlic, allspice, cumin, palmarosa, myrrh, hedycheim, amyris, thyme white, litsea cubeba, lemon eucalyptus) and the active compoent of cinnamon bark cinnamaldehyde (CA) at a low concentration of 0.1% to have high activity against stationary phase B. burgdorferi. At a very low 0.05% concentration, garlic, allspice, palmarosa and CA still exhibited strong activity against the stationary phase B. burgdorferi. CA also showed strong activity against replicating B. burgdorferi, with a MIC of 0.02% (equivalent to 0.2 μg/mL). In subculture studies, the top 5 hits garlic, allspice, myrrh, hedycheim, and litsea cubeba completely eradicated all B. burgdorferi stationary phase cells at 0.1%, while palmarosa, lemon eucalyptus, amyris, cumin, and thyme white failed to do so as shown by visible spirochetal growth after 21-day subculture. At 0.05% concentration, only garlic essential oil and CA sterilized the B. burgdorferi stationary phase culture as shown by no regrowth during subculture, while allspice, myrrh, hedycheim and litsea cubeba all had visible spirochetes growing during subculture. Future studies are needed to determine if these highly active essential oils could eradicate persistent B. burgdorferi infection in vivo."

/www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/02/06/260091

This is a continuation of the previous essential oils study published by the same Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health team lead by Ying Zhang. Older study about oils available here: /www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2017.00169/full.

The important finding in this study is IMHO garlic essential oil (cinnamon i think it was studied in the previous paper too). Apparently we should all eat more garlic than we do since it has a profound effect on the borrelia bacteria in vitro, even against persisters. I am not sure if just eating garlic cloves can achieve the level of % needed of the essential oil but i assume one can buy essential garlic oil and supplement with that. We must wait for the final paper to be published for more details.

Zhang's team apparently will next be playing will these essential oils in vivo (mice?) and report us back the findings.

PDXtransplant said...
I have never seen a garlic EO! I do have a cinnamon one though.

/www.amazon.com/Plant-Therapy-Essential-Undiluted-Therapeutic/dp/B00ISF9XQ6

This is pretty cool. In reality though, how many of these are typically taken internally for similar conditions? I hope they expand beyond essential oils into something with a little more history of use for CNS diseases

oregonhay said...
This would make sense. Years ago before I knew what was going on, I was in duress. I started taking anything and everything I could take to see if it had an effect. At one point I took a tablespoon of cinnamon and noticed relief. So then I went to the store and bought cinnamon sticks, and took massive dosage. Enough to burn the inside of my mouth over a weekend. Whatever it did, it gave me relief for several months until the symptoms came back.

Garlic. I already eat 4 cloves a night. Now I am interested to know how I can extract the oil at home.

Just an FYI - most "regular" cinnamon is toxic at high amounts. If you want to supplement powder cinnamon you have to get ceylon cinnamon.

A tablespoon every once in a while is fine, I think. But it can be an issue if you take a bunch every single day.

I don't know about the coumarin amount in cinnamon extract though.

Funnily enough, coumarin is the natural form of warfarin. So it also causes blood-thinning and interferes with clotting.

oregonhay said...

Now I am interested to know how I can extract the oil at home.

you cant. essential oil extraction utilizes industrial grade equipment like a super critical extractor.

without that you cant do it.

Garlic essential oil is reportedly awful to work with, pungent doesn't begin to describe the power it, you might as well bring a skunk into the house. I've used liposomal essential oils for several months, including cinnamon, and never felt a herx except from oregano in combination with herbs. Before I knew I had Lyme, eating large amounts of cinnamon would cause sharp pains in my abdomen, I suspect that was a herx.