Effect of Medicinal Agents, Stevia and Cumanda, on Borrelia burgdorferi

Effect of Medicinal Agents (Stevia and Cumanda) on the Different Forms of Borrelia burgdorferi.

Lyme disease or Lyme borreliosis is a tickborne multisystemic
disease caused by different species of Borrelia.

Administering antibiotics is the primary treatment for this disease, however,
relapse often occurs when antibiotic treatment is discontinued.

One possible reasoning is that Borrelia becomes resistant to
antibiotic treatment by converting from their spirochete form to
several defensive forms such as cysts and biofilms.

Recent studies on antibiotic resistant pathogens demonstrated that certain herbal extracts could have significant antimicrobial, antiprotozoal, antiviral, properties and in addition to that they are proven to be nontoxic and can be taken safely for longer period of time.

The aim is to test the effectiveness of three different
medicinal agents (Cumanda, Lakato and Stevia) on the different morphological forms of Borrelia burgdorferi using fluorescent, dark field microscopic techniques, special staining techniques including BacLight viability staining methods and by total carbohydrate analysis. As antibiotics are proven to be ineffective in eliminating all the morphological forms, natural antimicrobial agents might provide a more effective therapeutic option for Lyme disease patients.

We are grateful to the University of New Haven, Nutramedix LLC (Jupiter, Florida), TBDA (Turn the Corner Foundation), LDA, Lyme Research Alliance, Lyme disease. org (CALDA) and Schwartz Foundation for all their support.

In summary, the treatment involving Stevia, resulted in a significant reduction in the numbers of spirochetal form by 60% and the cyst forms by 98%. Doxycycline reduced the spirochetal forms by 77% but showed a marked increase in the cyst form at higher concentration. The treatment with Lakato also show similar trends but less effective than Stevia. Furthermore, Cumanda at a higher
dilution (1:900 dilution) reduced the spirochete form by 24% and the cyst forms by 5%.When quantitative effects on biofilm were evaluated, Cumanda reduced the formation of colonies by 43%
(1:600 dilution).
Priyanka A.S Theophilus M.S.
1
, Divya Burugu B.S.
1
, Akhila Poururi B.S.
1
, David F. Luecke B.S.
1
, Eva Sapi Ph.D1
Lyme Disease Research Group, Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences,
University of New Haven, CT, 06516
Figure1: The in vitro susceptibility of spirochete and cyst forms of B31 Borrelia burgdorferi to Cumanda, Lakato and Stevia and to doxycycline (25 µg/ml) for 96 hours'
treatment period using direct cell counting and dark field morphological evaluation methods. P- values <0.05 indicates statistical significance (*).
The three morphological forms of Borrelia burgdorferi B31
(spirochetes, round bodies and biofilm) were analyzed in this
study.
1 The antimicrobial sensitivity of spirochetal and cyst forms
was tested using dark field microscopy (direct cell counting).
1,3
Qualitative effects of antimicrobials against biofilms were assessed
using fluorescent microscopy and quantitative analysis on biofilm
was performed following the Total Carbohydrate Assay using
standard published technique.
4 The three antimicrobial agents
tested in this study has shown significant antimicrobial effects in
previous studies.
5,6,7
Therefore in conclusion the treatment involving Stevia show a
significant reduction in both the spirochetal and cyst forms, while Cumanda had the most significant effect in reducing the colony formation. Moreover, our results demonstrated that herbal agents had significant effects on all forms of Borrelia burgdorferi, implying that these antimicrobial agents could provide an effective therapeutic approach for Lyme disease patients.
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