Anticoccidial effect of supplemental dietary Galla Rhois against infection with Eimeria tenella in chickens.

The anticoccidial effects of Galla Rhois (GR) powder, which contains a major tannin-derived component of 52.7%, were evaluated in chickens following oral infection with Eimeria tenella. One-day-old chickens were assigned to five groups (control, unsupplemented, GR 0.5% supplemented [GRS 0.5%], GRS 1.0% [GRS 1.0%] and salinomycin supplemented [SS]). The chickens were fed a standard diet supplemented or not supplemented with GR or salinomycin for 10 days prior to infection. The birds received the supplemented diets continuously until 10 days post infection. The effects of GR on a E. tenella infection were evaluated by several parameters, including body weight gain, feed intake, oocyst excretion, bloody diarrhoea, and lesion scores. Infected chickens on the GRS and SS diets had a relatively moderate body weight loss (reduction ratio < 15%) and improved feed conversion. GRS and SS chickens produced significantly fewer faecal oocysts (P<0.05) and showed milder bloody diarrhoea compared with the E. tenella-infected control group. Furthermore, the lesion scores of both the GRS 0.5% and GRS 1.0% groups were significantly lower than the scores of the unsupplemented group on day 5 post infection. The lesion scores for the GR groups were similar to the scores for the SS group. In conclusion, this study suggests that GR appears to be as efficacious as salinomycin against E. tenella infection. GR supplementation leads to a reduction in infected chickens, although infected chickens are still affected compared with the uninfected control group. GR-based diets may be beneficial in preventing or treating coccidial infections in poultry.

Intracellular replication inhibitory effects of Galla Rhois ethanol extract for Brucella abortus infection.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Galla Rhois (GR) has long been applied in traditional Korean and Oriental medicine. Although GR has an anti-bacterial effect, the anti-bacterial mechanism and therapeutic efficiency of GR for intracellular parasitic Brucella infection are still unclear. AIM OF THE STUDY: The objective of this study was to investigate the antibacterial and therapeutic effects of GR ethanol extract (GRE), which is a natural antibacterial component for the treatment of Brucella abortus infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The antibacterial activity of GRE towards Brucella abortus was evaluated by incubating Brucella abortus with GRE. Following treatment with GRE, Brucella abortus adherence, uptake, intracellular growth, and intracellular trafficking in macrophages were monitored. Mice were infected intraperitoneally with Brucella abortus and treated orally with GRE for 14 days, and then the weight and CFUs from each spleen were monitored. RESULTS: The viability of Brucella abortus was markedly decreased in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, Brucella abortus internalization and intracellular growth within macrophages were reduced in GRE-treated cells. The number of bacteria that adhered to GRE-pretreated cells was significantly lower than that of untreated cells. With regards to intracellular trafficking, treatment with GRE augmented the colocalization of Brucella abortus-containing phagosomes with LAMP-1. GRE-treated mice showed considerably decreased weight and bacterial burdens in the spleen compared to untreated mice. CONCLUSION: GRE exhibits antibacterial and protective effects on Brucella abortus in vitro and in vivo. These results highlight the beneficial effects of GRE in the prevention and treatment of brucellosis.

Biological and antibacterial activities of the natural herb Houttuynia cordata water extract against the intracellular bacterial pathogen salmonella within the RAW 264.7 macrophage.

Salmonellosis is a major bacterial zoonosis that causes a variety of disease syndromes, from self-limiting enteritis to fatal infection in animals and food-borne infection and typhoid fever in humans. Recently, the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains of Salmonella sp. has caused more serious problems in public health. The present study investigated the antibacterial effects of Houttuynia cordata water extract (HCWE) against murine salmonellosis. In RAW 264.7 cells, there was no detectable cytotoxic effect of HCWE at any concentration between 25 and 100 microg/ml after 8-h incubation. The antibacterial activity of HCWE was then examined in a Salmonella enterica serovar (Salmonella typhimurium), and was found to increase in a dose-dependent manner at concentrations from 25 to 100 microg/ml during 8-h incubation. HCWE also affected RAW 264.7 cells including morphologic change and bacterial uptake, but there was no significant difference in bacterial replication in RAW 264.7 cells. With HCWE alone, nitric oxide (NO) production by RAW 264.7 cells did not increase, but when RAW 264.7 cells were infected by S. typhimurium, with or without HCWE, NO production with HCWE was 2-fold higher than that without HCWE. Treatment with HCWE did not affect inducible NO synthase (iNOS) mRNA expression by RAW 264.7 cells, but when RAW 264.7 cells with HCWE were infected by S. typhimurium, iNOS mRNA expression was increased during 8-h incubation. Furthermore, HCWE showed virulence reduction effects in S. typhimurium-infected BALB/c mice. After a lethal dose of S. typhimurium, the mortality rate in the HCWE untreated group was 100% at 7 d, but the HCWE 25, 50, and 100 microg/ml groups survived until 11, 17, and 23 d, respectively. These data suggest that HCWE is stable and beneficial in the treatment of bacterial infection including intracellularly replicating pathogens and may solve antimicrobial misuse and overuse.