Bactericidal and anti-adhesive properties of culinary and medicinal plants against Helicobacter pylori

AIM: To investigate the bactericidal and anti-adhesive properties of 25 plants against Helicobacter pylori (H pylori).METHODS: Twenty-five plants were boiled in water to produce aqueous extracts that simulate the effect of cooking. The bactericidal activity of the extracts was assessed by a standard kill-curve with seven strains of H pylori. The anti-adhesive property was assessed by the inhibition of binding of four strains of FITC-labeled H pylori to stomach sections. RESULTS: Of all the plants tested, eight plants, including Bengal quince, nightshade, garlic, dill, black pepper, coriander, fenugreek and black tea, were found to have no bactericidal effect on any of the isolates. Columbo weed, long pepper, parsley, tarragon, nutmeg, yellow-berried nightshade, threadstem carpetweed, sage and cinnamon had bactericidal activities against H pylori, but total inhibition of growth was not achieved in this study. Among the plants that killed H pylori, turmeric was the most efficient, followed by cumin, ginger, chilli, borage, black caraway, oregano and liquorice. Moreover, extracts of turmeric; borage and parsley were able to inhibit the adhesion of H pylori strains to the stomach sections.CONCLUSION: Several plants that were tested in our study had bactericidal and/or anti-adhesive effects on H pylori. Ingestion of the plants with anti-adhesive properties could therefore provide a potent alternative therapy for H pylori infection, which overcomes the problem of resistance associated with current antibiotic treatment.

Helicobacter pylori and functional dyspepsia: An unsolved issue?

Patients with Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori) infection may complain of dyspeptic symptoms without presence of macroscopic lesions on gastroduodenal mucosa. Such a condition is usually recognized as functional dyspepsia, and different pathogenetic mechanisms are involved. The role of H. pylori in these patients is controversial. Several trials assessed the potential role of H. pylori eradication in improving dyspeptic symptoms, and data of some meta-analyses demonstrated that cure of infection is associated with a small(10%), but significant therapeutic gain as compared to placebo. The reason for which dyspeptic symptoms regress in some patients following bacterial eradication, but persist in others remains unclear. Regrettably, trials included in the meta-analyses are somewhat different for study design, definition of symptoms, assessment of symptoms changes, and some may be flawed by potential pitfalls. Consequently, the information could be not consistent. We critically reviewed the main available trials, attempting to address future research in this

Therapy for <i>H.</i><i>pylori</i>: Current concepts

Helicobacter pylori plays an important role in the pathogenesis of chronic active gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastric mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue-lymphoma, and is also involved in carcinogenesis of the stomach. Since now no current first-line therapy is able to cure the infection in all treated patients. We evaluated data on the most successful therapy regimens—sequential, concomitant and quadruple therapies—and on the standard therapy available for H. pylori eradication. When therapy fails several factors may be involved: we reviewed both bacterial and host factors that can affect the eradication and that can be involved in therapeutic management of the H. pylori infection.