Curcumin had a high synergistic interaction with the antibiotics Amikacin, Gentamicin and Ciprofloxacin. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Synergistic antibacterial activity of Curcumin with antibiotics against Staphylococcus aureus.
Pak J Pharm Sci. 2015 Nov ;28(6):2109-14. PMID: 26639480
Sin-Yeang Teow
This study evaluated the synergistic antibacterial activity of Curcumin with 8 different antibiotic groups. Two reference, one clinical and ten environmental strains of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were tested. Disc diffusion assay with 25μg/mL Curcumin demonstrated synergism in combination with a majority of tested antibiotics against S. aureus. However, checkerboard micro dilution assay only showed synergism, fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI)<0.5 in three antibiotics i.e. Gentamicin, Amikacin, and Ciprofloxacin. Other antibiotics showed indifferent interactions but no antagonism was observed. In time-kill curve, appreciable reduction of bacterial cells was also observed in combination therapy (Curcumin + antibiotics) compared to monotherapy (Curcumin or antibiotic(s) alone). The antibiotics with higher synergistic interaction with Curcumin are arranged in a decreasing order: Amikacin>Gentamicin>Ciprofloxacin.