Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria (22 page)

If you are growing it as a medicinal, remove the flowers to retard old age and stimulate leaf growth. The leaves can be harvested throughout the year as long as you don't allow the plants to go to seed early on. If the plants are topped, you can get up to six harvests a year depending on your climate.

If you must dry bidens, do so out of the sun. And collect a lot of it, as it dries to almost nothing; a big bag of the fresh plant will give you a handful of dried powder. The plant will oxidize, so keep it in paper bags or, if well dried, in plastic, inside a plastic bin out of the sun. Replace every year or two, depending on how you store it. But ideally it should be used fresh.

A great deal of research has found that the plant leaves if used fresh or tinctured fresh possess significantly stronger antimicrobial activity than if dried. The herb's ability to inhibit malarial parasites drops from 90 percent in the fresh leaf tincture to 38 percent in the dried (in vivo studies). If you are using the plant as an antimicrobial for resistant pathogens, harvest the leaves before flowering and tincture them fresh.

If you do grow bidens intentionally, you may irritate your neighbors. Nevertheless, its ease of growth, widespread habitat, and medicinal nature make it an essential herb to know, grow, and use for the treatment of resistant pathogens.

There has been a lot of work on the constituents of
Bidens pilosa
, and around 100 different plant chemicals have been identified so far. There are numerous aurone flavonoids, butoxy lipids, coumaric acids, and erythronic acid phenylpropanoids, a number of heptaphenyl and phenylheptatriyne benzenoids, a lot of okanin flavonoids, numerous stigmasterol steroids, a lot of quercetin flavonols, daucosterol, and a whole lot more. A very comprehensive plant in terms of flavonoids, terpenes, phenylpropanoids, lipids, and benzenoids.

The most active constituents are thought to be the polyacetylene compounds and the flavonoids. The acetylenes have shown the broadest-spectrum antimicrobial activity.

The plant is one of the great easily available systemic antibacterial herbs. It does not appear to have as wide a range of action as
Sida
or
Cryptolepis
and is definitely not as strong. But it is reliable for the treatment of a number of resistant bacterial infections and is very simple to use. Because it grows so easily and is so prevalent in so many countries, it is a crucial herb to know about as resistant organisms extend their reach.

Wherever the plant grows it is often used by the local peoples for similar problems: to treat mouth and stomach ulcers, headaches, ear infections, hangovers, diarrhea, kidney problems, malaria, jaundice, dysentery, burns, arthritis, ulcers, abdominal problems, swollen spleen, coughs, colds and flu, rheumatism, boils, diabetes, skin rashes, and infected wounds. It is also used as an anesthetic, a coagulant, a poison antidote (especially for snakebite), and to ease childbirth.

Bidens pilosa
grows primarily in the south of India, where it is known as
ottrancedi
. It is frequently used for glandular sclerosis, wounds, colds, flu, acute or chronic hepatitis, and urinary tract infections. Another species,
Bidens trifada
, is used for chronic dysentery, eczema, skin problems, ulcers, headache, earache and ear problems, toothache, cough, inflammation, and leprosy.

Called
xian feng cao
(abundant weed),
gui zhen cao
(demon needle grass), or
nian shen cao
(I don't know but probably unflattering) by the locals, all parts of the plant are used to clear heat and toxins. Dosage runs from 15 to 60 grams (½ to 2 ounces) per day, or as high as 120 grams (4 ounces) in acute conditions such as appendicitis.

It is used for treating cardiac spasm, itching, gastroenteritis, appendicitis, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, hemorrhoids, diarrhea, dysentery, difficulty swallowing, sore throat, tonsillitis, esophageal enlargement, jaundice, acute or chronic hepatitis, malaria, boils, abscesses, infections, fever, chills, joint pain, traumatic injury, sprains, swelling, contusions, rheumatoid arthritis, gastric and esophageal cancer, epilepsy in children, infantile fever with convulsions, malnutrition in infants, colds and flu, bronchitis, chest congestion, hemoptysis, allergies, lung irritation, pneumonia, insect bites, scorpion sting, and snakebites.

Herbalists in the United States have consistently failed to understand this species, generally listing it as of little importance and having only minimal medicinal uses. The Eclectics knew it but used it little, primarily as an emmenagogue and expectorant, for amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, uterine problems, severe cough, asthma, and as an infusion. An infusion of the seeds sweetened with honey was used for whooping cough. The plant was thought useful for heart conditions including palpitation, for colds, and for acute bronchial and laryngeal attacks.

The Seminole tribe used bidens similarly, as did the native Hawaiians. Numerous tribes used it as a pot herb.

Michael Moore was the first contemporary herbalist to begin to understand its actions and he wrote about it extensively in the early 1990s. He didn't explore its antimicrobial activity but rather focused on its potency as a mucous membrane tonic. In his words, bidens “is probably the best herbal therapy we have for irritation, inflammation, pain, and bleeding of the urinary tract mucosa.”
³

The plant is a mucous membrane tonic and not only stops the inflammation and acts as a potent antibacterial in UTI infections but also heals the mucous membranes themselves. Moore felt it good for recurrent UTI infections and inflammations that didn't respond to antibiotics. The pain will usually go away in a day or two if you use bidens; he recommends using it an additional few days to completely clear up the problem.

Moore also considered bidens specific for reducing elevated levels of uric acid in the blood; i.e., for treating gout or urate-based kidney stones. It is a decent diuretic and does in fact stimulate uric acid elimination in the urine.

Because it is a mucous membrane tonic and is astringent, powerfully anti-inflammatory, and strongly antibacterial, it is specific for a number of troublesome diseases caused by resistant pathogens: UTIs, chronic diarrhea and dysentery, gastritis and ulcers (anywhere in GI tract, from mouth to anus), inflamed mucous membranes in colds and flu and respiratory infections of any sort, sore throats from coughs or infection or even overuse of the throat, and vaginal infections.

Moore notes that bidens has the “ability to tighten, shrink, and tonify the structural cells of the mucus membranes, thereby preventing congestion and edema, while simultaneously increasing the circulation, metabolism, and healing energy of the functional cells of those tissues.”
⁴

It's a good plant, too often overlooked.

Bidens pilosa
is highly active against the malaria parasite in in vivo and in vitro studies, bearing out its traditional use for that disease. The linear polyacetylenic diol extracted from bidens was found to be highly active against the malarial parasite in vivo and in vitro, especially in the fresh plant. The constituent is unstable in the dried state.

It is generally felt that the polyacetylenes in the plant are the most active constituents, the most potent antimicrobials. The research seems to bear this out. Alcohol tinctures of the fresh plant showed a 90 percent inhibition of the malarial parasite in vivo, while dried plant tinctures ran about 65 percent and water extracts about 38 percent. That activity is the same whether resistant or nonresistant strains are tested. In comparison, chloroquine-susceptible strains, when treated with chloroquine, will show a 99.2 percent inhibition of the malarial parasite. So the plant is nearly as strong as the pharmaceutical but not quite. It is definitely not as potent a plant as sida or cryptolepis, so larger doses need to be taken and for longer if you are using this plant for malaria.

An interesting in vivo study comparing the effectiveness of wild bidens versus domesticated found the wild species to be consistently stronger in its actions (the domesticated worked, just not as well).

As noted earlier, bidens possesses good antibacterial activity, as many antimalarials do. It has been found active against a wide range of microbial organisms, but some of the results are contradictory. (See Active Against,
page 130
, for more depth.)

Several of the plant's isolated polyacetylenes were found to be more active than ampicillin, tetracycline, norfloxacin, and amphotericin B during in vitro studies. Ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin were more potent than the plant extracts. In one study, water extracts of the plant were found to be more effective against
E. coli
and
Bacillus cereus
than gentamicin.

Bidens has been found to potentiate the activity of tetracycline if taken along with that pharmaceutical.

It is effective against herpes simplex 1 and 2 in in vitro studies, being nearly as strong as acyclovir but without the side effects.

Bidens pilosa
during in vitro testing was found more active than metronidazole in the treatment of
Entamoeba histolytica
, a cause of amoebic dysentery around the world. The organisms weren't completely inhibited but were significantly reduced in number.
B. pilosa
was also found to be highly active in the treatment of the parasite
Leishmania amazonensis
. An ethanolic extract inhibited both the intracellular amastigotes and the promastigote form. The extract had very low toxicity.

Bidens pilosa
is as effective as atropine, promethazine, neostigmine, and hydrocortisone in protecting mice from the venom of
Dendroaspis jamesoni
, a snake in Cameroon whose venom contains a potent neurotoxin. The plant extract also potentiated the antivenom normally used to treat those snakebites (as did atropine and promethazine). It is a very potent protector against neurotoxins. However, the plant is only weakly effective against viper venom, which causes
hemorrhage and necrosis.

A number of in vivo studies reveal the herbal tincture to be highly antiulcerogenic, inhibiting gastric lesions induced by alcohol, and to be more effective than sucralfate. The herb significantly protected gastric mucosa and initiated mucosal healing through a number of mechanisms. (See Western Botanic Practice,
page 136
.)

A number of studies have found the plant to possess antitumor activity. It inhibits angiogenesis (the formation of abnormal blood vessels, common in cancer and certain forms of macular degeneration), is antiproliferative, and directly reduces viable tumor cells (stimulates apoptosis). It possesses a strong antileukemic activity and numerous cell regulatory actions that normalize cellular function and growth.

The plant also has a strong antipyretic effect, comparable to acetaminophen. It is specific for lowering fever during acute infections.

Bidens
has been found to be a strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. A double-blind, randomized crossover trial with 20 participants found the herb effective in the treatment of allergic rhinitis. In vitro and in vivo studies have found it highly effective in protecting erythrocytes from oxidative damage. The water-soluble fractions are more antioxidative than the ethanol-soluble fractions. The plant inhibits COX-2 expression (similarly to ibuprofen) and prostaglandin production by inhibiting prostaglandin synthesis. It's a significant free-radical scavenger, comparable to alpha-tocopherol. It inhibits histamine release.

A number of in vivo studies note bidens to be an effective hepatoprotector. It protects the liver from chronic obstructive cholestasis and decreases the rate of necrosis and liver fibrosis. It normalizes liver enzyme levels and restores superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase levels in liver-injured mice. It is strongly protective against induced liver damage.

The plant possesses oxytocic-like actions on the uterus, tones the uterine muscle, and helps in labor contractions (in vivo studies).

It possesses relaxant activity on vascular tissue, is a vasodilator, and relaxes cardiac action. It reduces the aorta resting tone and inhibits KCL-and CaCl2-induced contractions by 95 percent. The effects are relatively long lasting. It attenuates high-fructose and salt-loaded hypertension in rats and reduces insulin levels in their blood. The effects are marginal in normotensive rats, but marked in hypertensive ones.

The plant possesses antidiabetic properties: It lowers glucose levels in the blood of mice, increases insulin sensitivity, and stimulates the release of insulin from the pancreas. A single daily dose for 28 days (in mice) also was found to protect islet structure in the pancreas and potentiate its activity. It was successfully used to reverse type 2 diabetes in mice. It reduces hypoglycemia. One of the herb's constituents, cytopiloyne, a polyacetylene, has been found to prevent type 1 diabetes in nonobese mice.

Bidens pilosa
is a strong and reliable immune modulator. It has been found to modulate the differentiation of helper T cells and prevent Th1-mediated autoimmune diabetes
in nonobese diabetic mice. This has been attributed to a number of polyacetylenic compounds and a butanol fraction. The butanol fraction also reduces Th2-mediated airway inflammation in mice. Hot-water extracts of the plant stimulate interferon-gamma expression. The plant will increase immune action if such action is low, and decrease it if it is high.

Family:
Asteraceae

Common Names:
Sweet Annie • sweet wormwood

Species Used:
There are around 400 artemisias in the genus, but
Artemisia annua
contains the most artemisinin—a potent antiparasitic—and this section will focus primarily on that species. Artemisinin is famous for its effectiveness in treating malaria. Many other artemisias contain artemisinin (contrary to earlier reports saying they did not) and I will discuss some of them in this section.