Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has bagged US Patent for a novel synergistic composition useful in the treatment of drug resistant bacterial infections. The fourth generation herbal antibiotic formulation invented by CSIR scientists comprises an effective amount of thymol, a mixture of the essential oils of Mentha arvensis and Mentha spicata or their monoterpene components in appropriate ratio and conventional additives.

The United States Patent (No: 6,824,795), issued on November 30, 2004, includes a method for producing the formulation by mixing the above ingredients and a method for the treatment of drug resistance in a patient by administration of a therapeutically effective amount of the formulation.

The composition is useful in the treatment of drug resistant enteric and systemic infections. The formulation with enhanced activity of thymol action comprises thymol in combination with the oil which is a combination containing the rare mixture of carvone, limonene and menthol. The invention also provides methods of producing the composition and a method of using thymol obtained from the seeds of the plant Trachyspermum ammi (Ajwain) as a fourth generation antibiotic formulation for control of drug resistant bacteria. More particularly, the invention relate to the use of a compound `Thymol` isolated from the oil distilled from the seeds of the plant Trachyspermum ammi (Ajwain) to kill the bacteria resistant to even prevalent third generation antibiotics and multi-drug resistant (mdr) microbial pathogens and thus useful as a plant based fourth generation herbal antibiotic formulation.

The scientists who were involved in the invention are Suman Preet Singh Khanuja, Suchi Srivastava, Ajit Kumar Shasney, Mahendra Pandurang Darokar , Tiruppadiripuliyur Ranganathan Santha Kumar, Krishna Kumar Agarwal, Ateeque Ahmed, Nirmal Kumar Patra, Prachi Sinha, Sunita Dhawan, Dharmendra Saikia, and Sushil Kumar. The significance of the finding becomes more evident when one realizes the growing instances of resurgence of tuberculosis and its incidence in human immuno-deficiency virus-positive populations in both developing and industrialized countries. This has focussed attention on the urgent need for development of new advanced generation drugs.