For garlic, powder more effective against bacteria than oil
Garlic may be good for your health, but it appears that garlic powder works better than garlic oil in fighting bacteria according to researchers from the United Kingdom. They report their results in the January 2001 issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
The antimicrobial effects of garlic have long been known, but little research has been done to date on garlic oil. The purpose of this study was to compare the abilities of garlic oil and garlic powder on a variety of bacteria known to cause gastrointestinal illness. For nearly every species tested, garlic powder had a greater killing effect than garlic oil. "Garlic powder was more active than garlic oil against most bacteria, although some properties of garlic oil are identified as offering greater therapeutic potential," say the researchers. "Further exploration of the potential of garlic powder and garlic oil in enteric disease control appears warranted."
(Z.M. Ross, E.A O'Gara, D.J. Hill, H.V. Sleightholme and D.J. Maslin. 2001. Antimicrobial properties of garlic oil against human enteric bacteria: Evaluation of methodologies and comparisons with garlic oil sulfides and garlic powder. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 67: 475-480.)
Engineered HIV requires antibiotic to replicate
Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have genetically engineered a live-attenuated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that will only reproduce in the presence of the antibiotic doxycycline. Their research, which may help in the development of a safe, live HIV vaccine appears in the January issue of the Journal of Virology.
The designer virus (HIV-rtTA) was created in response to concerns about current live HIV vaccines. The genetic instability of current candidate vaccine viruses suggests the possibility that they could convert to once again cause disease.
To improve the safety of HIV cand
'"/>
Contact: Jim Sliwa
jsliwa@asmusa.org
202-942-9297
American Society for Microbiology
10-Jan-2001