Can You Kill Lyme Bacteria with Essential Oils?

Lyme disease can sometimes be hard to treat because the bacteria that cause it, Borrelia burgdorferi, can go dormant. When Lyme bacteria are not actively reproducing, antibiotics can’t kill them.

Essential Oils Against Persistent Lyme Bacteria:

A scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has found ten different essential oils from plants that are lethal to the bacteria even while it is growing slowly if at all (Antibiotics, online Oct. 16, 2018). Compounds from garlic, allspice, spiked ginger lily blossoms, myrrh trees and may chang fruit killed stationary phase Lyme bacteria in the culture dish within a week. Other plant compounds that killed the bacteria came from cumin seeds, thyme leaves and cinnamon bark.

This research is still very preliminary. The next step will be to test some of these potent natural compounds against Lyme infections in laboratory animals. Ultimately, scientists will need to do clinical trials in infected humans.