Sage
Sage (Salvia officinalis) is especially beneficial for throat and respiratory infections, and it is also efficient in treating infections of the oral cavity. In addition to this, sage is useful for stomach infections and intestinal disorders.
Sage helps in reducing temperature, fever and pain occurring at the beginning of colds and flu. Arabs, Chinese and Romans believed that sage is the key to long life.
Honey
In its raw form, honey was used as an antibacterial remedy (antibiotic) long before synthetic antibiotics for different wounds and diseases were developed in cultures around the world.
Today, scientific researches confirmed the antifungal and antibacterial properties of this sweet remedy, beneficial in effective healing of skin rashes, burns and scratches, it cleans bacteria from the oral cavity, stops bleeding gums, and it is also effective in treating ulcers and blisters.
A research published in 2010, in the Journal FASEB was the first to explain how honey kills bacteria.
Specifically, the researches show that bees produce the defensin-1 protein and they add it to the honey, so this protein could become the basis for developing a new, even stronger remedy to treat burns and skin infections, as well as developing new drugs to fight against bacteria resistant to antibiotics, known as super-bacteria.
It is important to choose high quality honey when treating wounds and inflammation with this natural antibiotic. Darker honey has bigger antibacterial power – and it must be in its raw form, meaning it must not be pasteurized.
One of the most efficient types of honey, speaking of antibacterial properties, is the Manuka honey, originated in New Zealand and produced from the Leptospermun scoparium nectar.
Cloves
Even today, dentists use clove oil as an oral antiseptic and as a disinfectant for the root canals (the smell you can feel in almost every dental office). Eugenol, found in large amounts in cloves, is considered as the primary antimicrobial blend of this herb documented by many scientists around the world.
If you want to relieve toothache, chewing a clove for a few minutes is enough to stop the toothache completely within two hours. However, clove is most effective when it is used to produce oil.
Clove oil has proven to have many antifungal effects against fungal pathogens, i.e., this oil kills more than 60 bacteria types, 15 types of fungi, plus several viruses (Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 2004).
Cinnamon
A group of surgeons conducted a study and discovered that cinnamon can kill various types of bacteria found in hospitals, other studies have found that cinnamon can kill bacteria resistant to standard antibiotics, and in a third study, it was found that cinnamon is the most powerful enemy of Esherichia Coli.
In 1999, Erdogan Dzhejlan, chief researcher at the University of Kansas, for the purpose of his investigation infected some apple juice with about a million of E.Coli bacteria.
Just one teaspoon of cinnamon killed 99.5% of the bacteria for three days at room temperature (25 C). When he added 0.1 per cent of sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate and some approved preservatives to the same amount of cinnamon, E.Coli was destroyed to immeasurable proportions.
– If cinnamon can destroy E.Coli, one of the most dangerous microorganisms transferred through food, it will most certainly leave some consequences on other bacteria found in food, including Salmonella and Campylobacter, says Daniel Fung, doctor and professor at the Department of Animal Science and Industry at K-State, who supervised the research.
Garlic
Garlic is mentioned as a food product in the first records of written history. In the time of the pharaohs, when Egypt was at the peak of its power, garlic was given to the workers and slaves who built the great pyramids to increase their endurance, strength and most important – to protect them against any disease.
Ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian medical document dating back to around 1,500 BC, mentions garlic for 22 times as a cure for various diseases. Hippocrates, Aristotle and Aristophanes mention the importance of garlic, … more specifically, garlic is mentioned in the literature of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome.
Garlic has proven to be helpful in treating many diseases and one of its most powerful active ingredients – allicin, has antibacterial and anti-fungal properties.
Scientists have proved that allicin destroys numerous bacteria, including some of the most dangerous, often resistant to standard antibiotics.
– Allicin simply drills large holes in MRSA, argues Ronald Kutler, professor of microbiology at the University of East London, England (MRSA – a common title for the bacteria resistant to a broad spectrum of antibiotic, which makes them difficult to treat).