A common herbal extract, available in health food stores, could greatly reduce urinary tract infections (UTIs) and could potentially improve the ability of antibiotics to kill E. coli bacteria, the source of 90 percent of infections in the bladder.
Forskolin, an extract from the Indian Coleus plant, is an herb known to rev up certain cellular activity. Researchers suggest forskolin can help with urinary tract infections by flushing out colonies of bacteria that tend to hide in the lining of the bladder, making them susceptible to antibiotic treatment. Since the lining of the bladder is an impenetrable surface, the antibiotics cannot reach the bacteria while they are hiding and the bacteria can return after treatment, causing another UTI. Researchers found forskolin can force the bacteria out of their niches and into the urine, where antibiotics could kill them, minimizing the number of returning infections.
In the latest experiments, researchers at Duke University’s Medical Center in Durham, N.C., injected forskolin directly into the bladder or administered it intravenously into the test mice. Using those methods, the herb appeared to expel more than 75 percent of the hiding E. coli. Dr. Soman Abraham, Ph.D., the study’s lead researcher, told Ivanhoe he expects similar results from the herb when taken by mouth, as a human would, because once taken orally, “it’s quickly taken up by the intestines. And then it tends to go to the blood, and the blood will transport it to the right site.”
Next, the researchers will test forskolin’s efficiency while taken with antibiotics. Dr. Abraham said, “Now that we’ve seen it work quite effectively on its own, we think that in combination with an antibiotic we should be able to completely eliminate these hidden bacteria from the bladder.”
The Food and Drug Administration does not test or regulate herbal extracts, like forskolin, so Dr. Abraham recommended patients contact a physician before using.
SOURCE: Ivanhoe Interview with Soman Abraham, Ph.D.; Nature Medicine, published online April 8, 2007
