Inhibitory Effect of Chinese Herbal Medicine on Multiple Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria

Objective: To detect whether common antipyretic and antidote Chinese Herbal Medicine have different inhibitory effects on antibiotic sensitive and resistant bacteria strains.Methods: The inhibitory effect of 28 Chinese Herbal Medicines,such as Yuxingcao(Houttuyniae herba),Huanglian(Coptidis rhizome),Huangqi(Scutellariae radix),Dahuang(Rhei radix et rhizome),Fangfeng(Saposhikoviae radix),Jinyinhua(Lonicerea japonicae flos),etc.,on antibiotic sensitive and resistant Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus haemolyticus strains were detected by agar dilution method.Results: The results showed that most of the 28 kinds of traditional Chinese medicine had no significant different inhibitory effect on antibiotic sensitive and resistant bacteria strains,only several had(4/28),and they were Lianqiao(Forsythiae fructus),Houpo(Magnoliae officinalis cortex),Juemingzi(Cassiae semen),Gancao(Glycyrrhizae radix et rhizoma).Antibiotic resistant strains were usually more sensitive to the Chinese Herbal Medicine than the sensitive ones.Moreover,some Chinese Herbal Medicines had better inhibitory effects on both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus haemolyticus strains,such as Huanglian(Coptidis rhizome),Huangqin(Scutellariae radix),Dahuang(Rhei radix et rhizome),Jinyinhua(Lonicerea japonicae flos),Diyu(Sanguisorbae radix),Shanzhuyu(Corni fructus),Banlangen(Isatidis radix),etc.;Others had less inhibitory effects,such as Yuxingcao(Houttuyniae herba),Sangbaipi(Mori cortex),Shandougen(Sophorae tonkinensis radix et rhizome),Fangfeng(Saposhnikoviae radix),Pugongying(Taraxaci herba),Pipaye(Eriobotryae folium),etc..Conclusion: Only a small number of these 28 traditional Chinese medicines show different inhibitory effects on antibiotic sensitive and resistant bacteria strains,and the resistant strains are often more sensitive than the sensitive ones.The results suggest that the combination of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine may have advantages in the treatment of bacterial infectious diseases.