Natural Approaches for Controlling Urinary Tract Infections

Oral supplementation oftrans-cinnamaldehyde reduces uropathogenicEscherichia colicolonization in a mouse model

“…Thus, increasing prevalence of antibiotic‐resistant uropathogens, escalating health care costs and unsatisfactory therapeutic alternatives highlights the need for alternative strategies in the prophylaxis and treatment of UTIs (Smith et al . ; Amalaradjou and Venkitanarayanan ). Hence, this study investigated the efficacy of trans‐ cinnamaldehyde in reducing UPEC colonization and infection in a mouse model of lower UTI.…”

“…). Moreover, TC has been reported to exert antimicrobial activity on the bacterial cell membrane and mitochondria, leading to increased membrane permeability, inhibiting glucose uptake and energy generation and inhibition of cellular enzymes (Wendakoon and Sakaguchi ; Gill and Holley ; Amalaradjou and Venkitanarayanan ). Since plant antimicrobials, including TC, contain different functional groups, their antimicrobial activity is attributable to multiple mechanisms.…”

“…Accurate classification of the cases is the foremost and critical step in the clinical management of UTIs. UTIs may be primarily distinguished between the two anatomic locations of the infection, namely upper and lower tract infections (Griebling ; Amalaradjou and Venkitanarayanan ). In majority of cases, the infection is associated with the lower part of the urinary tract (Najar et al .…”

“…The treatment routine involves a short course of antimicrobials such as a 3‐day regimen of trimethoprim–sulphamethoxazole combination (Nickel ). Besides the therapeutic approach, antibiotic prophylaxis is administered to susceptible populations with recurrent lower UTIs (Amalaradjou and Venkitanarayanan ). However, the emergence of antibiotic‐resistant uropathogens potentially limits the effectiveness of current antibiotic therapy (Barber et al .…”

“…). In addition, plant polyphenols have been found to be effective in controlling UTIs (Amalaradjou and Venkitanarayanan ). Trans ‐cinnamaldehyde (TC) is an aromatic aldehyde present in the bark extract of cinnamon (Burt ).…”