MUENCHHAUSEN
AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS
By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET
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May 15, 2015
May 15, 2015
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WELCOME!
The Green Baron (TGB) welcomes one and all who take
the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much
as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of
those to go around in other publications.
The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above.
MAPLE SYRUP ANTI-BACTERIAL?
On April 30, TGB referred to the possibility that maple syrup may contain biochemical principles that could degrade the ability of bacteria resistant to antibiotics to retain their degree of resistance. Here, he will look into this possibility in some more detail and try to explain it as straightforwardly as he can. But first, let us consider the following from Gregory Benford, Professor Emeritus (Physics), University of California at Irvine (1):
"We need look only to our own recent technological history to know that big surprises are in store. As late as the 1950s no one, not even the most prophetic science-fiction writers, foresaw solid-state microelectronics and the personal computer revolution that it would bring. In the 1920s and '30s, who anticipated that genetic resistance to those new antibiotic wonder drugs and our indiscriminate use of them would end our rosy expectations for the quick conquest of bacterial infection?" (1). Please note that Fantasy and Science Fiction used to run articles on science fact and some futurology
Gregory Benford. Not very optimistic about quick conquest of bacterial infection.
Essentially, back in 1999, Benford noted that earlier in the 20th century, when antibiotics were being discovered and developed, it appeared as if humanity's ancient bacterial enemy were decisively flung back with unprecedented force and effect. An early such event was the accidental--perhaps serendipitous--discovery by Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955), in 1928, that certain bacteria died when in the presence of certain molds. One mold of this genre is Penicillium notatum, from which penicillin was isolated. P. notatum is found in soil. Additional drug discoveries followed post-World War II, and are listed and described in scientific and popular literature.
P. notatum. Source of one of first proven antibiotics (2).
Fleming. Won Nobel Prize 1945, physiology or medicine
for discovering penicillin (3).
Alas, as Benford pointed out ca. 1999, the enemy fought humanity back. The main (and especially nasty) one was the development of resistance to drugs, which we shall know as "R". Blood-curdling articles on the emergence of "superbugs" have become legion. Bacteria become resistance by evolving characteristics in several ways, including:
* Hardening of cell walls to bar the entry of drugs.
* "Efflux"--essentially, the drug enters the bacterium, but is effectively spat out.
* Development of protective biofilms that envelop the bacterial colony; examples include dental plaque and films found on catheters (urinary infections can arise from these biofilms).
Research in combating "R" involves many projects, but who ever thought that a possible weapon--if that is the word--could be found in maple syrup? Yet this may be a significant route of research, which got its main start with maple syrup purchased at a grocery store in Montreal, Canada (4).
Natalie Tufenkji, professor of chemical engineering at McGill University (Montreal) and her team, developed a concentrated extract of maple syrup. In so doing, they developed a concentrated maple syrup extract that contains phenolic compounds that have been shown to have antiseptic and antioxidant properties. These compounds appear to impair some mechanisms that confer "R" on certain pathogens. In their work, they tested Escherichia coli and Proteus mirabilis, which are listed as causes of urinary infections, for example. The findings were in the laboratory, in vitro, but is is hoped that in the future, perhaps a combination of drugs and the maple syrup extract materials will render resistant bacteria susceptible to antibiotic treatment once more (5).
More specifically, here is generally how the maple syrup extract could work:
* "One effect that the extract has on bacteria is to make their cell membranes more porous. This makes it easier for the antibiotics to enter the microbial cells.
* "The maple syrup extract also shuts down the "efflux pumps" that the bacteria use to push any antibiotic that makes it through the membrane out of the cell.*
* "And a third way that the extract weakens the bacteria is by reducing expression of genes linked to antibiotic resistance and virulence" (5).
A paper on the findings from the maple syrup research has been accepted by, and will be published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. A link to the accepted paper is available via a Web site of McGill University (6). TGB plans to follow this story further.
Tufenkji and colleague: Maple medicine? (6).
It seems that Tufenkji and her colleagues also are looking into extracts of cranberry for the same objectives. Actually, that should not be surprising. For example, cranberry juice and extract often are used medically to combat urinary infections. And for maple and cranberry, you might not need a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down! (7)
DIVESTMENT FROM FOSSIL FUELS
In the interest of climate change, the Church of England has decided to divest from its holdings its investments in coal and tar sands company securities. It will no longer put its money--of which it has substantial amounts!--in any company that earns more than 10%of its revenues from extracting coal to be burned for energy or oil from tar sands (8). There may, however, be certain exceptions. Other church bodies that likely will reduce or close out investments in fossil fuels include the World Council of Churches (8).
REFERENCES:
1. Benford, G.L. "A Scientist's Notebook". Fantasy and Science Fiction, October/November 1999.
2. http://forces.si.edu/soils/04_00_20.html
3. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming-bio.html.
4. http://bootstrappress.blogspot.com/2015/04/muenchhausen-april-30-2015.html
6. https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/could-maple-syrup-help-cut-use-antibiotics-246929
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrnoR9cBP3o
8. Clark, P. "Church vows to blacklist coal and tar sands investments". Financial Times, May 1, 2015, p. 6.
