Guava Leaves For Infection: Benefits Of Steaming With Guava Leaves

The use of guava leaves for infections (such as genital herpes) is one of the most commonly used treatments in folk medicine for the management of fungal, viral, and bacterial infections.

This usage began to increase due to the resistance of some microbial strains to the available drugs. Recent studies also reaffirmed the benefits of steaming with guava leaves . According to a study, oral treatment with guava leaves extract can be used as an alternative for the management of bacterial growth.

Want to learn more? In this guide, I’m going to take a look at some of the health benefits of guava leaves for infection while highlighting relevant research-backed studies.

Let us get started.

Benefits of Guava leaves for Infection

Different scientific research-backed studies have shown that guava leaves can be used to manage different kinds of infections.

I discuss the different forms of infection below:

1. Use for the Treatment of Wound Infection

Extract of guava leaves was shown to improve wound healing by suppressing the activities of infectious bacteria.

One study made to investigate the potential benefits of guava leaves showed that oral formulation containing guava leaves extract can serve as an antibacterial in the management of surgical, skin, and soft tissue infections.

In this study, 6.25-50mg/ml aqueous extracts of guava leaves were tested against Proteus mirabilis, Streptococcus pyogenes, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas ferruginous.

Analysis of the result showed that the gram-positive bacteria were more susceptible to the leaves extract than gram-negative bacteria.

However, this study needs further research in order to find more insight as to what is really responsible for such activity.

Main points:  guava leaves can be used to manage wound infection caused by bacteria.

2. Prevent Lysis of Human Hepatoma Cell Line

Guava leaves may improve the disintegration of a human hepatoma cell line.

According to one study, guava leaves extract suppressed quorum regulated phenotypes of violacein production and swarming in the pathogenic bacteria (Chemobacterium violaceum and Pseudomonas aeruginosa).

Despite, Chemobacterium violaceum being gram-negative, the aqueous extract of guava leaves was able to inhibit swarming and expression of genes in the bacterium.

This helps quicken wound healing and prevent the disintegration of hepatic cells.

However, more study is needed, which can provide more details between metabolism carried out in the liver and the effect of aqueous of guava leaves during this metabolism.

Main points: guava leaves may be used to treat infectious diseases such as gram-negative bacteria and improve wound healing during liver cancer.

3. Fight Against Gram-positive Bacteria

The extract of guava leaves was also shown to have strong antimicrobial benefits.

It was found to inhibit different foodborne and spoilage bacteria in several studies.

For example, one study showed that guava leaves may be used to fight infectious microbes.

In this study, guava leaves extract, which was extracted using hexane, methanol,  ethanol, and water was tested against two gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus) and two gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Salmonella enteritidis).

The extracting procedure is based on increasing polarities and the experiment is made in a well-diffusion agar media.

Each well was assigned a 50 microliters leaf-extract solution.

Upon analysis of the result using antibacterial assay, it was shown that the methanol and ethanol extracts of guava leaves inhibited the activities of S. aureus and B. cereus, while E. coli and S.enteritidis are less susceptible to the inhibitory effects of guava leaves extract.

The antibacterial mean zones of inhibition tested against B. cereus and S. aureus are 8.27 and 12.3mm for the methanol, while that of ethanol extract is 6.11 and 11.0mm.

However, the exact phytochemical compound responsible for this action was not revealed in this study. But, the study has proven the health benefits of guava leaves for infection.

Main points: guava leaves may be a powerful antibacterial agent especially for the management of gram-positive bacteria.

4. Manage and Prevent Influenza Virus

Guava leaves extract was shown to be beneficial in the treatment of the influenza virus.

The influenza virus is a very infectious disease caused by three main types of viruses (influenza viruses A, B, and C).

The influenza virus A is the most devastating affecting many people worldwide. The virus was estimated to be responsible for the death of over 500000 people in the world annually.

Several studies have highlighted the antiviral property and health benefits of guava leaves in the management of the influenza virus and the common cold.

For example, according to this study, guava, and lemon extracts alongside other greenish herbs were found to suppress influenza A virus replication in human A549 cells.

In this study, the above-mentioned herbs were put into an experiment to test their antiviral activity against the new strain of influenza virus A, which is resistant to the common conventional antiviral drugs.

Analysis of the cytotoxicity of the extract on host-cell multiplication using nucleoprotein expression profile and traditional plaque assay showed that guava leaves extract suppressed influenza A virus replication.

Treatment with guava extract was shown to inactivate Akt protein kinase and improve pro-apoptotic protein P53 at the early stage of the infection.

Additionally, an active ingredient (guava flavonoid glycosides) extracted from guava in association with pro-apoptotic protein P53 showed better competitive inhibition of influenza A virus replication.

Main points: guava leaves contain an active ingredient called flavonoids, which can be used to manage infectious viral diseases such as influenza A virus.

Tip: Learn how to use guava leaves fro infection

Related questions

If you know more about the health benefits of guava click here and here for nutrition facts of guava.

Conclusion

We have discussed the health benefits of guava leaves for the management of infections. We hope that the guide gives you useful information. So, do write to us in the comment section below about your view.

References

 Kimberly Rogers, Fredrick McLaughlin, Dwayne Daniels, Anand Yadav, 2013. Antimicrobial Activities of Leaf Extracts of Guava (Psidium guajava L.) on Two Gram-Negative and Gram-Positive Bacteria. International Journal of Microbiology | 746165 |

El-Mahmood Muhammad Abubakar, 2009. The use of Psidium guajava Linn. in treating wound, skin, and soft tissue infections. Retrieve on 31/05/2020

Ghosh R, Tiwary BK, Kumar A, Chakraborty R (2014) Guava Leaf Extract Inhibits Quorum-Sensing and Chromobacterium violaceum Induced Lysis of Human Hepatoma Cells: Whole Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Differential Gene Expression. PLOS ONE 9(9): e107703.

 Khalil, H, Abd El Maksoud, AI, Roshdey, T, El‐Masry, S. Guava flavonoid glycosides prevent influenza A virus infection via the rescue of P53 activity. J Med Virol. 2018; 91: 45‐ 5

Gonçalves, Flávia A., Andrade Neto, Manoel, Bezerra, José N. S., Macrae, Andrew, Sousa, Oscarina Viana de, Fonteles-Filho, Antonio A., & Vieira, Regine H.S.F.. (2008). Antibacterial activity of GUAVA, Psidium guajava Linnaeus, leaf extracts on diarrhea-causing enteric bacteria isolated from Seabob shrimp, Xiphopenaeus kroyeri (Heller). Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo, 50(1), 11-15.

Daswani PG, Gholkar MS, Birdi TJ. Psidium guajava: A Single Plant for Multiple Health Problems of Rural Indian Population. Pharmacogn Rev. 2017;11(22):167‐174.

Naseer, S., Hussain, S., Naeem, N. et al. The phytochemistry and medicinal value of Psidium guajava (guava). Clin Photos 4, 32 (2018).