A COMMON kitchen herb could hold the key to fighting deadly bugs including E coli, salmonella and even MRSA, scientists claim.
Researchers have found that oil from coriander plants can kill a broad range of bacteria.
They believe tiny amounts of the oil could be given to patients in hospitals to treat drug-resistant infections and be added to food to stop stomach bugs spreading.
The team at Portugal’s University of Beira Interior also claim it could act as a preservative to prevent food from rotting.
Coriander
They tested the oil against 12 bacterial strains, including E coli, salmonella enterica, bacillus cereus food poisoning and MRSA. All had their growth reduced, and most were killed, by solutions containing 1.6 per cent or less of the oil, which worked by damaging cell membranes.
Dr Fernanda Domingues, who led the research, said the oil could be used as a natural alternative to antibiotics and “fight multidrug- resistant bacterial infections that otherwise could not be treated”.
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Coriander oil could be used to cure a host of infections including food poisoning and the superbug MRSA, say researchers.
The herb extract is resistant to a range of toxic bacteria which cause infections that are resistant to drugs, a study has found.
Portuguese scientists tested samples of the oil – taken from the seeds of a coriander plant – against 12 lethal bacteria.
All showed reduced growth and most were killed by a solution containing less than 1.6 per cent of the oil.
The team from the University of Beira Interior found the oil attacks and kills the outer membrane of bacteria cells, including salmonella, E.coli and MRSA.
Dr Fernanda Domingues, who co-authored the study, said coriander oil could help the millions who suffer from food-borne illnesses every year.
‘It could become a natural alternative to common antibiotics,’ she said.
‘We envisage the use of coriander in lotions, mouth rinses and even pills, to fight multidrug-resistant bacterial infections that otherwise could not be treated.
‘This would significantly improve people’s quality of life.’
In the UK every year, around one million people suffer a food poisoning, leading to 20,000 needing hospital care and around 500 deaths, according to the Food Standards Agency.
There were 1,900 cases of MRSA in this country in 2009-2010 and nearly 500 deaths.
Dr Domingues explained how the oil works by saying: ‘It disrupts the barrier between the [membrane of bacteria] cell and its environment and inhibits essential processes including respiration, which ultimately leads to the death of the bacterial cell.’
But the authors say more research is needed into how it would be developed into a drug.
Coriander is widely used in Mediterranean and Asian cuisine.
It has been known as a medicinal plant since ancient times but the mechanism by which it works was not previously understood, says the study, published today in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.
Hugh Pennington, former emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University said: ‘We have known about the antibacterial properties for a long, long time, but the difficulty in medicine is getting them to the right place to treat salmonella, or MRSA in your hip or whatever.
‘Unless it can do that, the discovery is not fantastically important.’
The number of deaths linked to MRSA has fallen again – and is now nearly a quarter of what it was four years ago, according to official figures.
Office for National Statistics data showed there were 485 deaths in England and Wales in 2010 where the superbug was mentioned on the death certificate.
The figure represents a 38% fall from 2009 and and is almost four times less than the 1,652 peak recorded in 2006.
Clostridium difficile deaths are also falling.
Last year there were 2,704 deaths linked to the infection, down from the 8,324 recorded in 2007.
For both infections, the most deaths were recorded in the over-85s age group.
It comes as the number of infections being record has hit a record low.
Twenty-five hospital trusts have been free of MRSA for a year, and in June the number of monthly cases dropped below 100 for the first time.
Meanwhile, C difficile cases are down 16% on a year ago.