Tubercle bacilli, inhibition

Humulus lupulus L. She Ma (Hop) (female flower, unripe fruit) Humulone, resin, lupulone, choline asparaginer, lupulin, isohumulone, isovaleric acid.33-450 This herb is toxic. Inhibit the growth of tubercle bacillus and arrest tuberculosis. 

Humulus scandens (Lour.) Merr. Lu Cao (aerial part) Humulone, lupulone, asparagine, choline, luteolin.33 Inhibit tubercle bacillus, antipyretic, diuretic. 

Inhibition of the chemotaxis of leucocytes toward starch granules by fine suspensions of Pmko (a peptido-glycolipid, chemically very similar to wax D of human strains) has been observed by Choucroun and coworkers, using different experimental conditions. Meier and Schar have found that the wax D of tubercle bacillus has almost no action on the migration of leucocytes. 

The presence of trehalase in the tubercle bacillus was discovered by Bloch and SuUman in 1945. Optimal hydrolysis of a,a-trehalose by the enzyme occurred in acid to neutral solutions. Since a,a-trehalose is not utilized by the bacteria so rapidly as is n-glucose, it was inferred that the bacillus only metabolizes the a, -trehalose after the trehalase has converted it into D-glucose. Trehalosamine (see p. 220) has an antimycobac-terial effect. This effect is antagonized by a,a-trehalose. One mole of trehalosamine as inhibitor removes 0.337 mole of Q ,a-trehalose from the surface of the enzyme. Total inhibition of mycobacterial trehalase is not readily produced. Cord factor was also isolated from wax D of a BCG strain of M. tuberculosis in 1959 by Nojima. A list of fatty acid esters of a, a-trehalose is given in Table I. 

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