How Turmeric and Rhubarb May Assist Gradual the Rise of Superbugs

Based on the World Well being Group, antibiotic resistance has develop into a world well being emergency. The UN well being company has described the phenomenon as a “silent pandemic,” warning that frequent infections have gotten more and more tough — and generally not possible — to deal with.

In its newest International Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) report, which pulls on knowledge from greater than 100 international locations, the WHO discovered that roughly one in three infections in Southeast Asia and the Japanese Mediterranean areas have been immune to generally used antibiotics, as have been one in 5 infections in Africa. “Antimicrobial resistance is outpacing advances in fashionable medication, threatening the well being of households worldwide,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated in a press release accompanying the report.

Whereas most public consideration focuses on hospitals and medical settings, scientists are more and more involved about one other, much less seen entrance within the combat towards antibiotic resistance: wastewater.

In a 2025 laboratory examine revealed within the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Microbiology, researchers examined whether or not naturally occurring plant compounds may assist restrict the unfold of antibiotic-resistant micro organism in public wastewater techniques. The concentrate on wastewater displays rising concern that sewage can act as a reservoir the place micro organism are repeatedly uncovered to low ranges of antibiotics excreted by folks taking the medicine, circumstances that may speed up the event of resistance.

“With out improved therapy, wastewater may function a breeding floor for ‘superbugs’ which will enter water assets comparable to rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, posing potential dangers to public well being,” Dr. Liyuan “Joanna” Hou, an environmental microbiologist at Utah State College and the examine’s senior writer, stated in a assertion.

“Our aim was to isolate and characterize multidrug-resistant micro organism, discover the molecular mechanisms of resistance by means of whole-genome sequencing, and assess the potential of pure compounds as different mitigation methods,” Hou stated, including that genomic evaluation helps researchers perceive how resistance traits persist and unfold in wastewater environments.

To analyze this threat, Hou and her colleagues collected samples from a wastewater therapy plant in Logan, Utah. In laboratory experiments, they remoted micro organism from the samples and examined their resistance to sulfamethoxazole, a generally used antibiotic. The crew then chosen the 4 most resistant bacterial strains and screened them towards 11 plant-derived compounds beforehand reported to have antimicrobial or anti-biofilm properties.

Two compounds stood out: curcumin, present in turmeric, and emodin, a naturally occurring compound in rhubarb. In lab circumstances, each inhibited the expansion of sure Gram-positive multidrug-resistant micro organism.

“We chosen a panel of compounds primarily derived from vegetation, comparable to curcumin from turmeric, quercetin from onions and apples, and emodin from rhubarb,” Hou stated. “These compounds have been chosen based mostly on their reported antimicrobial or anti-biofilm properties in earlier research and their pure abundance, making them promising candidates for exploring new, environmentally pleasant approaches to mitigate resistance.”

Nonetheless, researchers stress that the findings are early-stage and don’t counsel that these compounds are prepared for real-world use — nor that they might deal with infections in folks. The experiments have been carried out below managed laboratory circumstances and centered on a single wastewater therapy facility, which can not mirror the complexity of bigger or much less superior techniques, notably in areas most affected by antibiotic resistance.

Consultants additionally warning that scaling up such approaches would require in depth testing to find out acceptable concentrations, environmental security, price, and compatibility with present wastewater therapy applied sciences.

“Whereas pure compounds like curcumin and emodin present promise in inhibiting sure multidrug-resistant micro organism, additional analysis is required,” Hou stated. “Future work ought to embody testing these compounds in complicated wastewater matrices, exploring synergistic results with present therapy processes, and assessing long-term impacts on microbial communities and resistance dynamics. Moreover, scaling up from laboratory research to pilot-scale trials will probably be crucial for evaluating feasibility and environmental security.” 

For now, the analysis highlights wastewater as an often-overlooked battleground within the combat towards antibiotic resistance — and underscores that addressing the disaster would require interventions far past the physician’s workplace.