Meadowsweet Herbs

Washing down an antibiotic with a cup of green tea can make the drug work up to three times better, a new study shows. It can even help kill superbugs–drug-resistant organisms such as MRSA–that are showing up in ever-increasing numbers in hospitals, nursing homes and even schools. If you’ve ever had one of these hard-to-shake infections, you know just how disheartening it can be when it comes back again and again, despite long-term antibiotic treatment.

The study tested green tea in combination with 28 disease-causing microorganisms. In every case, it showed that green tea enhanced the bacteria-killing activity of antibiotics, said lead researcher Mervat Kassem, Ph.D. For example, the killing effect of the antibiotic chloramphenicol was doubled when taken with green tea, compared to taking it alone. Green tea also made 20% of drug-resistant bacteria susceptible to cephalosporin, an important type of antibiotic that new drug-resistant strains of bacteria have evolved to resist.

The study was presented at the Society for General Microbiology’s 162nd meeting, and will be published in an upcoming issue of the European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.