Grapefruit seed Extract (G.S.E.) A wonder Tonic?

Reptile Health and Grapefruit Seed Extract (G.S.E.)

Grapefruit seed extract is being used to kill multiple parasites in reptiles as it is wide spectrum.
It is proving to be very useful in the elimination of amoebas in reptiles amongst other benefits.

There are many different kinds of parasites that are looking for a host.
They range in size from microscopic to single and multi-celled worms.

The word parasite comes from the Greek para, meaning "beside," and sitos, meaning "food."
This means "an animal or plant that lives on or in another organism from which it obtains nutrients."

Some parasites are larger than bacteria and viruses but they are usually so small that you cannot see them without a microscope.
Others, such as worms, can grow quite large and can be seen with the eye.

The four major groups of parasites include Protozoa (amoebas, Giardia), Nematoda (round, pin, and hookworms), Cestoda (tapeworms), and Trematoda (flukes).

"Grapefruit Seed Extract, according to published sources, is effective against more than 800 bacterial and viral organisms, 100 strains of fungus,
and a large number of single-cell and multi-celled parasites."

When compared with 30 effective antibiotics and 18 proven fungicides. Grapefruit seed extract was proven to perform as well as any and all agents tested.

No other known natural antibiotic, antiseptic, disinfectant can demonstrate such safety, versatility and overall effectiveness as grapefruit seed extract.

Cattle, horses, hogs, fish, poultry, even reptiles can benefit greatly from use of GSE: it is an excellent remedy for skin diseases, external injuries, fungal infections, and internally, the diseases caused by parasitic, bacterial, viral or fungal infections.

Since animals can’t tell us what’s wrong, and since GSE is such a broad-spectrum solution, it is becoming the first-line of defense for many farmers and Veterinarians.

http://www.nutriteam.com/stock.htm
good site for info, many times there are better deals out there for G.S.E..

I raise handfed baby Parrotlets and use 3 drops of g.s.e. per gallon of h2o to hydrate there baby food. It elimates fungal/ bacteria "souring"in my baby parrotlets crops. Many avian breeders that I know of, are using with positive results.

Some reptile/ animal keepers are using anywhere from 1 to 25 drops or so as the critters everday water supply as a water purification agent and a "general purpose health tonic".
10 drops of G.S.E. to a gallon of water is recommended to human and canine "back country hikers" as a water purification method as a second choice if boiling of the water to purify is not possible.

I personally use Ten drops of G.S.E. per gallon for my Corn Snakes "everday" water
and I use 10 drops of G.S.E. and two teaspoons of "Watkins" brand "double strength" vanilla extract per gallon of H2O, for my mice colony for a odor control agent.
My mice smell a whole lot less and thats a good thing.


I know of a large scale Snake breeder who has used 25 drops of G.S.E. per gallon for her snakes water supply for over a year now and she has experienced positive results and plans on continuing with the "Tonic".

Thanks for posting this info.

I have ordered some of the GSE myself for my mouse colony as well as in incidences where it may seem prudent to treat a snake that is not acting up to par.

Are there any known dangers or problems with overdosing? It would probably be easiest for me to add a drop to a mouse water bottle or a snake water dish rather than making up a gallon of the elixir and administering it that way.

Originally posted by Rich Z

Are there any known dangers or problems with overdosing? .

Besides that, are we ( when using that stuff ) not "overcleaning" our reptiles.. I am a snake breeder, but only give things very sparse, and only to sick or weakend animals.

Try to see it as 2 aquaria ; 1 that holds 1 great looking fish and that tank is filled with normal water, and a normal filter and normal bulb.

the other tank, same great fish, multiple filters and a UV bulb to KILL unwanted bacteria. a complete sterile enviroment...

great if all is well, but if the light breaks... the fish in the "cleaner" tank is far more septive to a disease.. Now I am not saying that we should all do nothing in our tanks and terraria, but isn't this a bit dangerous... I mean.. if they don't need it in the first place...
I live in the netherlands and did not see it appear here... I'll see if I can get some more info on that..

http://members.chello.nl/g.waversveld/index.html

I tend to agree that it shouldn't be overdone with the GSE. It is a great product to use when it is needed, but shouldn't be over-used so that it is needed on a regular basis. But it is great and has many antimicrobial properties.

I have read in a couple of places that GSE is yet another "wonder drug" scam and that the NutriTeam brands of Citricidal and Microbiotic in particular are "contaminated", i.e. up to 22 percent, with ethyl alcohol and chloride, hence the antimicrobial and fungicidal properties. Just something to think about. I am going to read more about it though.

I used GSE for years with my birds, then all that came forward with the additives. While there's no concrete proof that I've seen, it did make me think enough to switch to something a lot more natural.

Try organic apple cider vinegar, the kind with the mother in it. It does a lot of the same things, is used in much the same way, and there's a lot of information out there about it. I use it for everything from water additive on occasion to a rinse for my sprouts and a produce wash. It's also great for cleaning.

from terresentials.com

"Grapefruit seed extract. Sounds so friendly, doesn´t it? You´ve heard it touted as a “natural” preservative, and the health food store sells it in a capsule as an antifungal supplement. If everybody says that it´s natural they must be correct, right? Wrong.

Grapefruit seed extract is not grapefruit juice. It is also not grapefruit essential oil and it is most certainly not an herbal tincture. Chemical manufacturers take the leftover grapefruit pulp, a waste by-product from grapefruit juice production, and in an intensive, multi-step industrial chemical process, change the natural phenolic compounds into synthetic quaternary ammonium compounds. Typically, in chemical synthesis of this type, chemical reagents and catalysts are used under extreme high heat and pressure or vacuum. Synthetic ammonium chloride is one of the chemical catalysts used in this process.

The US Department of Agriculture´s (USDA) National Organic Program defines synthetic as “A substance that is formulated or manufactured by a chemical process or by a process that chemically changes a substance extracted from naturally occurring plant, animal, or mineral sources.” Grapefruit seed extract is a synthetic chemical compound, cannot be called “organic,” and is not permitted in organic food proucts.

Unfortunately, because there is no legal definition of the word “natural,” any company can put chemicals in body care products and tell you that they´re “natural.” Also, in the US, any company is free to sell any chemical compound as a “dietary supplement” without doing any pre-market or long-term safety studies of any kind.

Grapefruit seed extract has become an extremely controversial chemical compound recently. Studies conducted in the US and abroad report suspicious and abnormal chemical acitivity in numerous, randomly selected grapefruit seed extracts. Here is one report from the Institute of Pharmacy, Ernst Moritz Arndt University, Greifswald, Germany:

“The antimicrobial efficacy as well as the content of preservative agents of six commercially grapefruit seed extracts were examined. Five of the six extracts showed a high growth-inhibiting activity against the test germs. In all of the antimicrobial active grapefruit seed extracts, the preservative benzethonium chloride was detected by thin layer chromatography. Additionally, three extracts contained the preserving substances triclosan and methyl paraben. In only one of the grapefruit seed extracts tested no preservative agent was found. However, with this extract as well as with several self-made extracts from seed and juiceless pulp of grapefruits (Citrus paradisi), no antimicrobial activity could be detected. Thus, it is concluded that the potent as well as nearly universal antimicrobial activity being attributed to grapefruit seed extract is merely due to the synthetic preservative agents contained within. Natural products with antimicrobial activity do not appear to be present.”

Further, the USDA did a grapefruit seed extract study (full text here (pdf)) and declared, “Confirming an earlier study by researchers in Germany we found that some commercial grapefruit seed extracts contain benzethonium chloride, a synthetic antimicrobial agent commonly used in cosmetics and only approved for topical use, at relatively high levels of 8%.”

The Swiss Toxicological Information Center of Basel, Switzerland, reports that “Grapefruit seed extracts containing benzethonium chloride in concentrations of 7-11% represent a major health risk if larger amounts of a concentrated solution are ingested (i.e. by mouth). Exposure of the skin or the eye may cause toxic symptoms. The Swiss Toxicological Information Center discourages consumers from administration of these extracts unless it is known which of them are containing benzethonium chloride and what the concentrations are."

I don't think I will be spending my money on it. This was a better info source than the Wiki article, which didn't cite sources.

i use it with my birds and in all my drinks that i make for the family so far this year no one is sick! i use it as a all purpose cleaner cleans my cages and all i love the stuff and i checked with the vet before i even thought about putting anything in my birds water! my zons make soup (anyone with birds know what that is) its where they dip their pellets and other food in their water and the soup can breed all kinda things with in 2 mins. that means you have to change the water every time they eat or drink!! but i love the stuff!!!! imo its the best thing ever it has kept us all from gettin sick!!! i will keep using it !!!!!!!!!!!

Don't add balsamic vinegar to any of your snakes water...it harbors mold quite easily. White vinegar is fine, I haven't tried apple cider yet. I think this GSE is about as effective as pouring plain old grapefruit juice into their water, its not going to do much without bleach and etc.

It (GSE) definitely kills off beneficial bacteria in the gut. That was one of the bigger reasons I switched.