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