Berberine is recognized as having antibacterial activity, and has demonstrated such activity against “staphylococcal, streptococcal, and enterococcal species, including multi drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and MRSA” (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). In in vitro studies berberine was demonstrated to have “activity against clinical isolates of MRSA, with minimal inhibitory concentration (MICs) ranging from 32 to 128 μg/mL.” Additionally, berberine demonstrated synergism with antifungal medications (amphotericin, fluconazole, and miconazole) thus may be beneficial for opportunistic infections resistant to antibiotics. Previous studies also observed that berberine did not instill bacterial resistance, “since [the] MIC of berberine within same bacterial cultures (E. coli, S. aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Proteus vulgaris, S. typhimurium and P. aeruginosa) did not increase over 200 generations.” Thus, berberine may be viewed as a potential alternative or adjunctive therapy for the treatment and/or prevention of candidiasis.
Ref: Zorić N, Kosalec I, Tomić S, Bobnjarić I, Jug M, Vlainić T, Vlainić J. Membrane of Candida albicans as a target of berberine. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. (2017) 17:268. DOI 10.1186/s12906-017-1773-5.