We reviewed the susceptibility of Propionibacterium acnes to eleven
Kampo formulations and to eight Kampo crude drugs that had been studied
by examining their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) in 1990 and
1995. P. acnes strains were most sensitive to Oren-gedoku-to (OGT)
among these Kampo formulations. Coptidis Rhizoma (CR) and Phellodendri
Cortex (PC) inhibited the growth of P. acnes significantly among the
eight Kampo crude drugs examined. The patterns of distribution of MIC
of Kampo formulations and Kampo crude drugs to P. acnes in this study
were almost the same as in our previous report in 1990. No significant
increases in MIC of Kampo formulations and Kampo crude drugs to P.
acnes were observed. We speculated that Kampo crude drugs such as CR
and PC, were better than minocycline or erythromycin from the point of
view of a progressive increase in MIC to P. acnes. CR and PC, which
were each an ingredient of OGT, might contain some components with
strong antibacterial activity to P. acnes.

PMID: 9037918 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE