https://www.newscientist.com/article...ics-is-broken/

Thanks DavidHC - a nice piece of work and potentially very significant.

I thought you'd find it interesting. In fact, I had you and MrsD in mind in particular when posting it. Now to see what happens in human trials.

Thanks for this link David - interesting read.

Just to add some additional information on potential treatments for fighting superbugs and managing the antibiotic resistance problem.

There is some research being done on this subject (and I'm guessing it will become more urgent with outbreaks such as Ebola & Zika).

One promising compound that is currently undergoing research and development is Totarol - still some time away from human medical use but is already in use in the veterinary field. (and as a dairy farmer friend said " if it works on the cows I'd use it on myself").

Here's a couple of links to more info:

http://www.totarol.com/html/our_products.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totarol

Another different approach to combating superbugs is outlined in this article.

http://news.yahoo.com/fighting-infec...073937986.html

Bluesfan,

Thank you for these interesting links. So it seems that the only human products with totarol are toothpastes and skin care products and nothing for ingesting? It just looks so promising as an antimicrobial.

Regarding the other point/avenue, I found this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC90351/. This is a very interesting method and looks promising. I'll read more about it.

Hi David

Yes - re the totarol - sadly from what I've read it's the old problem of the high cost of clinical trials and meeting health and safety regs for humans that has delayed the push into human use - that's why the foray into animal health is more advanced. They have taken out patents for use in medical products so hopefully something in the pipeline.

I read a post from kiwi on another thread about the use of Manuka honey for wound healing and can't help thinking there may be some connection to totara (a podocarp) - Manuka is also a dense very hard wood that is impervious to rot - similar to Melaleuca alternifolia - both part of the myrtle family.

Thanks for the additional link on the other article - haven't read it all yet but have book marked it - very informative. If you're interested in the whole topic of antibiotic resistance you may want to google "Norway antibiotic policy" - some years ago I read a newspaper article about how Norway was limiting the use of antibiotics - it was a full 2 page article and very interesting - I have it stashed away somewhere but wouldn't know where to find it right now but there is plenty online about their policy.

Bluesfan, maybe the Norwegian article is this http://tidsskriftet.no/article/3016792/en_GB?

It makes a lot of sense to me.