Cannabigerol treats antibiotic-resistant bacteria (MRSA)
Infectious Disease Researchers at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada and immunologists at the University of Alexandria in Egypt have collaborated on a new study unlocking the antibiotic potential of cannabigerol (CBG), a potent therapeutic cannabinoid.
The researchers found that cannabinoids have antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in mice similar to standard antibiotics. They report cannabinoids inhibit the ability of MRSA to form biofilms.
Many cannabinoids are effective against Gram-negative organisms, which have a outer permeabilized membrane. Cannabigerol also targets the inner cytoplasmic membrane of Gram-positive organisms.
"Cannabinoids work in combination with polymyxin B against multidrug resistant Gram-negative pathogens, revealing the broad-spectrum therapeutic potential for cannabinoids."
Farha, M. A., El-Halfawy, O. M., Gale, R. T., MacNair, C. R., Carfrae, L. A., Zhang, X., Jentsch, N. G., Magolan, J., & Brown, E. D. (2020). "Uncovering the Hidden Antibiotic Potential of Cannabis". ACS infectious diseases, DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.9b00419. Advance online publication. Click here to view graphs and tables.
@MediKatie, is CBG the most antibacterial cannabinoid currently known?
Good question. You can see a graph of the antibacterial action of various different cannabinoids investigated in the study here. Other studies show that all the major cannabinoids (and perhaps their entourage effect) are antibacterial, but my gut tells me that there's something special about cannabichromene and cannabigerol.
Cannabichromene is also antifungal. They're anti-sickness basically and there's hundreds of them, and terpenes too, all working synergystically to balance us and bring good health.
Cannabinoid entourage antimicrobial action? Okay, that's getting pretty interesting.
According to a recent Forbes article, cannabigerol is an expensive cannabinoid because of its rarity and difficult extraction process, but that process is well-documented in the literature and seems pretty easy. How hard and expensive is it really to analyze and isolate cannabinoids? Isolating cannabinoids and making combinations of them (without patents) is what the real cannabis "industry" should be. It would be the holy grail of medicine....East meets West :)
While these findings aren't directly applicable to the current viral outbreak from China, they hint that many more breakthroughs with antimicrobial cannabinoids are waiting to be discovered!