Clostridium botulinum en plantas medicinales

BIANCO MI, FERNÁNDEZ RA, LÚQUEZ C, CICCARELLI AS, PLAZA I

San Luis, Argentina

Otro; XIX Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2003

Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo

Nowadays, infant botulism is the most common form of botulism. It is a neuromuscular disorder caused by intestinal absorption of botulism neurotoxin (BoNT) produced after intestinal colonization by C. botulinum (Cb). It occurs in infants under 1 year of age. Environmental dust, honey, corn syrup and herbal infusions have been proposed as possible source of Cb’s spores. Herbs selected for this study are usually used as medicine for infants. Twenty-three samples of Matricaria sp. (camomile) and sixteen of Illicium verum (star anise) were analysed. Aliquots of suspensions were seeded in chopped-meat medium broth after heat shock (80ºC, 7 min.), incubated 5-7 days at 34ºC in anaerobic chamber. Supernatants were tested for BoNT by bioassay in mice. Cb was isolated onto solid media. BoNT was produced in high concentration by dialysis and its LD50 was calculated using the Reed and Muench method. Toxin was identified by quantitative neutralization testing at 1000 LD50/mouse. The 26,1% of camomile were positive (6/23), but all samples of star anise result negative. Camomile can be considered a potential vehicle of Cb, so it should not be administered to infants under 1 year of age.