Do natural antibiotics really work?

Antibiotics are used to kill or inhibit bacteria growth. Although you might think of antibiotics as modern medicine, they’ve actually been around for centuries. The original antibiotics, like a lot of today’s antibiotics, are derived from natural sources.

Certain plant extracts, essential oils, and even foods have antibiotic properties. For example, some food and vegetable extracts can prevent the growth of bacteria in food.

Sometimes, these properties extend beyond the food and can aid in your personal hygiene. Cranberry extract contains both antibacterial and antioxidant compounds, making it a home remedy for urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Herbs can be antibiotics, too. A small sampling study of 58 Chinese plants found that 23 had antibacterial properties and 15 had antifungal properties.

A 2014 study found that an herbal therapy was just as effective as a chemical antibiotic in treating a small intestine bacterial overgrowth disorder.

Keep reading to learn about five popular antibiotics that you can try at home.

Option 1: Honey

Honey is one the oldest known antibiotics, tracing back to ancient times. Egyptians frequently used honey as a natural antibiotic and skin protectant.

Honey contains hydrogen peroxide, which may account for some of its antibacterial properties. It also has a high sugar content, which can help stop the growth of certain bacteria.

Additionally, honey has a low pH level. This works to pull moisture away from bacteria, causing the bacteria to get dehydrated and die off.

To use honey as an antibiotic, apply it directly to the wound or infected area. The honey can help kill off the bacteria and aid in the healing process. If possible, opt for raw Manuka honey. This form of honey offers the most health benefits. You can purchase raw Manuka honey here.

You can also ingest honey to aid in the treatment of internal infections. Simply swallow a whole tablespoon or stir it into a warm cup of herbal tea for a soothing treat.

Honey is generally safe to use on the skin or in the body, though you should never give honey to an infant under 1 years old. Instead, consult your healthcare provider for an appropriate alternative.

Option 2: Garlic extract

Garlic has long been thought to have antimicrobial properties. A 2011 study found that garlic concentrate is effective against bacteria. You can purchase garlic concentrate or extract at your local health food store. You may also be able to make your own by soaking a few garlic cloves in olive oil.

Garlic is generally safe to ingest, but large doses might cause internal bleeding. Up to two cloves per day is considered an acceptable dosage. If you’re taking a garlic supplement, be sure to follow the dosage directions as provided.

If you’re taking blood-thinning medication, consult your healthcare provider before using garlic as an antibiotic. Large doses of garlic can amplify the effects of this medication.

You can also apply garlic concentrate directly to a wound or blemish.

Find a variety of garlic supplements here.

Option 3: Myrrh extract

Many people are familiar with myrrh, but its ability to ward off harmful germs isn’t as widely known.

Researchers in a 2000 study concluded that an extract of myrrh could kill off several everyday pathogens. This includes:

Myrrh is generally well-tolerated, but ingesting it may cause diarrhea. If applying myrrh to the skin, it’s possible to experience a small skin rash. If consumed in large doses, myrrh may cause heart problems.

Myrrh is typically prepackaged, so be sure to follow the dosage instructions on the label.

Buy myrrh extract now.

Option 4: Thyme essential oil

Many all-natural household cleaners use thyme essential oil. This oil has been shown to be especially helpful against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

In a 2011 study, researchers tested the effectiveness of both lavender and thyme essential oil. Both oils were tested in a pool of over 120 strains of bacteria. The researchers found thyme essential oil to be more effective at killing bacteria than lavender essential oil.

Thyme essential oil is for external use only. You shouldn’t take thyme oil by mouth. Before applying to the affected area, be sure to dilute the essential oil with equal parts carrier oil. Common carrier oils include coconut and olive oils.

Applying undiluted essential oil to the skin may cause inflammation and irritation.

People with high blood pressure or hyperthyroid problems shouldn’t use thyme essential oil.

Purchase thyme essential oil and a carrier oil now.

Option 5: Oregano essential oil

Carvacrol is an ingredient found in oregano essential oil. It has important therapeutic properties that further activate healing in the body when inhaled. Oregano oil has been found to help heal gastric ulcers and reduce inflammation.

To treat fungal infections on your skin, add one drop of oregano essential oil per teaspoon of a carrier oil such as olive or coconut oil . Apply the mixture to the affected area.

You can also diffuse oregano oil in the air to help clear sinus infections. You shouldn’t ingest oregano essential oil or use undiluted essential oil on the skin.

You may also be able to eradicate bacteria in the home with a homemade cleaning agent made of:

oregano essential oil
vinegar
water
lemon

Buy oregano essential oil here.

The bottom line

Be sure to discuss your interest in natural antibiotics with your healthcare provider. They can help you explore your options and help you weigh the potential benefits and risks of each regimen.

You shouldn’t take antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. Taking antibiotics for the sake of taking antibiotics can lead your body to build up a resistance to the medication. You can learn ways to help prevent antibiotic resistance here.

If your healthcare provider does prescribe you antibiotics, be sure to finish the entire treatment regimen.

Iguanas:Chicken of the tree,high protein meat production efficiency

www.maya-ethnozoology.org › iguana-iguana-ctenosaura-palearis-cte...

iguana-iguana-Ctenosaura-palearis-Ctenosaura-similis ...

Photographs of two of the three species of iguanas of the Mayan areas of Guatemala: green iguana, black iguana, Guatemalan spiny-tailed iguana.

www.mayan-characters-value-based-education.org › black-iguana-cte...

Iguana Species

Iguanas are 4-legged and inhabit trees, especially tree limbs over rivers; the Maya ate iguanas and also revered the iguana in painted scenes.

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https://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/fl-reg-eating-iguana-south-florida-invasive-20180627-story.html

Chicken of the trees: Eating South Florida's iguanas

While many people view South Florida’s invasive iguana population as an annoyance at best and a pandemic at worst, Ishmeal Asson sees something else: lunch.

The Fort Lauderdale resident and native Trinidadian considers eating iguanas to be a way of life. Growing up, Asson learned to roast the island critters at roadside and backyard gatherings. Iguana is a staple in the Caribbean, where the reptiles are a native species and are known as “pollo de los árboles,” or chicken of the trees. Their meat contains more protein than chicken, and members of some cultures believe it has medicinal properties.

In South Florida, Asson is hardly alone in his taste for cooked iguana. He has more than a dozen friends who eat the animal, and they frequently hunt them using nets, snares and traps. “We are having a cookout this weekend,” he said earlier this week.

How to cook iguana burritos

JUN 29, 2018 11:10 AM

Asson said he and his friends use a traditional method of preparing iguana. “First, we cut off the head, then roast [the body] on the fire. You have to roast it with the skin on because it’s easier to take the skin off once it’s roasted,” he said. “Then, we cut it up into pieces and season it with a lot of fresh produce like chives and onions. I love to season it with curry and hot pepper, too. It tastes like chicken.”

As someone who has eaten iguanas his entire life, Asson still finds humor in eating the prehistoric-looking reptiles. “I prefer to eat it with the skin on,” he said, “because then I know what I’m eating. It kind of gives you a sense of humor, like, ‘This is iguana,’ you know?”

Iguana by the pound

While Asson and other South Florida iguana lovers can nab the lizards for free and with little difficulty, their peers in other states order iguana meat from companies such as Exotic Meat Markets. Anshu Pathak, owner of the California-based company, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he imports 10,000 pounds of iguana a month from Florida trappers.

He said that his company, which sells such items as lion steak and raccoon sausage, is helping to control the iguana population.

“I am making iguana sausages, hot dogs, iguana burgers,” Pathak said. “I am trying to do anything and everything to make them palatable to the public. The industry is only growing.”

Exotic Meat Markets in California imports iguana from Florida and sells its meat in various forms. The owner says he makes iguana sausages, hot dogs and burgers. (Sun Sentinel)

He said he sells the meat to customers and restaurants across the United States, offering boneless meat for $59.99 per pound and whole, skin-on iguana for $49.99.

Pathak said he used to import iguanas from Puerto Rico, but now gets them from trappers in Florida. He said that trappers sometimes send the reptiles frozen, but mostly transport them alive and by airplane.

“A lot of my customers want them whole, with guts in,” he said.

Pathak said his facility has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. When he receives live iguanas, he said, he puts them in a freezer to kill them.

The FDA did not respond to inquiries about the consumption and commercialization of iguana meat.

Selling iguanas requires a Florida wildlife license, though a permit is not needed to possess one, according to Robert Klepper, law-enforcement media spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. There is no prohibition on who can buy an iguana, Klepper said.

Brian Wood, owner of All American Gator, an alligator-processing and iguana-trapping company in Hollywood, is avidly searching for a market for his trapped iguanas. Wood said he captures more than a thousand of the creatures a month.

“I feel bad just killing them and wasting it, so I started keeping them,” he said.

Now, more than a thousand of the lizards live on his iguana farm in LaBelle, in Hendry County. Because he captures so many, Wood said he feeds some to his alligators and turns others into wallets.

“With the number of iguanas I catch, I could make a fortune off selling them if I could find a market,” Wood said. “When I first started selling alligator, people asked, ‘Who would eat alligator?’ Now, I sell 80,000 pounds of it a year.”

‘You just have to try it’

Florida isn’t the only place where the lizards run rampant. Green iguanas began to take over Puerto Rico in the early 2000s, undermining roadways, chomping on native plants and harassing islanders. It was when they started obliterating the island’s crops that residents asked the government for help.

A bounty of up to $6 per pound was placed on the creatures’ heads. Similar to Florida’s python hunt, the Puerto Rican government issued permits in 2012 for private companies to legally hunt iguanas, said Daniel Galan-Kercado, who was secretary of Natural Resources for Puerto Rico at the time.

Brittany Peters sauteed seasoned iguana meat with onions and chives. (Brittany Peters / Courtesy)

“It was very effective in the first two years. They were capturing maybe 200 to 300 per week,” Galan-Kercado said.

Private entities paid hunters for iguanas and then processed and exported the meat to the United States, Central America and Asia, he said. Some Puerto Ricans also started farming iguana, and it became a significant industry.

Commercializing iguana provided an answer for Puerto Rico, but so far, no iguana-export industry operates in Florida. Moreover, the reptile is far from appearing on most Floridians’ dinner tables.

Out of control iguanas infesting South Florida

JUN 22, 2018 6:00 AM

“You just have to try it, though,” said Brittany Peters, who during a recent trip to South Florida made an iguana-inspired meal for the first time.

With no experience cooking the beasties, Peters went with a simpler route than roasting the meat over an open flame — she made burritos. Peters shot two green iguanas in the Keys, then skinned, boiled and sauteed the meat at her relatives’ home in Fort Lauderdale.

She boiled the skinned body for about an hour, then picked off the tender meat. She added a chili-lime seasoning from Trader Joe’s before sauteing it with onions.

Peters paired the white meat with sour cream, cilantro, avocado and lime for a “delicious” reptile burrito.

Brittany Peters paired iguana meat with avocado, sour cream, salsa and other burrito fillings. (Brittany Peters / Courtesy)

(A note of caution to veteran and would-be iguana eaters: Although it is illegal to do so, nuisance iguanas are occasionally poisoned. Before biting into iguana meat, make sure it does not contain any poisons or other harmful substances.)

As an avid hunter, Peters lets none of the animals she kills go to waste. “If you’re going to participate in killing them, [iguana] is good enough, healthy enough and tasty enough that you should absolutely take the time to cook it, too,” Peters said.

Overall, she gives her recipe three stars, but only because she’s not a chef. “With some classes, I think I could get it to taste even better,” she said.

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Ellie Rushing

Ellie Rushing is an intern with the Sun Sentinel’s features and business desks. Ellie was born and raised in Naples and is a student at Rollins College, where she is the Editor in Chief of her college newspaper, The Sandspur. She plans to graduate in May 2019 and is pursuing degrees in environmental studies and communications.

tostaduria antigua

Friday, August 28, 2020

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