TITLE:
The synergistic effects of green tea polyphenols and antibiotics against potential pathogens
AUTHORS:
Bobak Haghjoo, Lee H. Lee, Umme Habiba, Hassan Tahir, Moe Olabi, Tin-Chun Chu
KEYWORDS:
GTP; LTP; Green Tea Polyphenols; Pathogenic Microorganisms; Kirby-Bauer Disk Diffusion Method; Antibiotic Resistance
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology,
Vol.4 No.11,
October
25,
2013
ABSTRACT: Green
tea leaves contain many polyphenolic compounds
such as (-)-epicatechin (EC), (-)-epicatechin-3-gallate (ECG), (-)-epigallocatechin
(EGC), and (-)epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). These polyphenol compounds
have been implicated to have distinct properties that combat the harmful
effects of cell proliferation. They contain certain anti-viral and antibacterial
properties that inhibit growth. In this study, 1% green tea and modified
lipophilic green tea polyphenols (GTP and LTP) were used in combination with
the most commonly prescribed antibiotics to study their effects on
gram-positive, gram-negative, and acid-fast bacteria. The results indicated
that 1% GTP and 1% LTP provided different synergistic effects on several antibiotics
in various bacteria. It was found that 1% GTP works the best synergistically
against Enterobacter aerogenes, making the resistant strain susceptible to 8 out of 12 antibiotics
used. 1% LTP worked the best on Escherichia
coli and was able to convert 7 antibiotic resistant categories to susceptible.
In addition, 1% LTP was also able to inhibit the growth of Serratia marcescens synergistically with 3 antibiotics. These
results suggest that 1% GTP and 1% LTP provide beneficial effects on selected
antibiotics against microbial growth and are able to reverse the antibiotic resistance to susceptible. Green
tea polyphenols could serve as natural alternatives to combat against
antibiotic resistance pathogens.