Cape Town - Unique, beautiful and hardy, fynbos may carry even more weight than just aesthetic value.
Researchers at Stellenbosch University have shown that the soil in which fynbos grows is teeming with bacteria that could bolster the body’s battle against resistant infections.
In a new study carried out by Dr Du Preez van Staden as part of his doctoral thesis, he found that fynbos’s inherent antibiotic properties could be as effective as commercial antibiotics.
In his quest to discover new antibiotics, Van Staden dug through bacteria-rich fynbos soils in search for antimicrobial-producing bacteria. He specifically focused on a group of peptide antibiotics, known as lantibiotics.
Of the two lantibiotic-producing bacteria Van Staden found, one worked to kill disease-causing bacteria.
“We also found that these lantibiotics were just as effective as a well-known, commercially available product used for the treatment of skin infections and did not negatively affect wound healing,” he said.
Van Staden said while the research of lantibiotics over the years had produced promising results, including their effect on wound healing, this research had not been taken further due to funding constraints.
“The next phase of our research will hopefully look at a fundamental side of lantibiotics… to see how they interact with us and whether they are a good or bad influence,” he said.
Cape Argus