Current Challenges and Perspectives for the Use of Aqueous Plant Extracts in the Management of Bacterial Infections: The Case-Study of Salmonella enterica Serovars

Abstract

Worldwide, foodborne diseases are a growing public health problem. Among the infectious bacteria, non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica serovars (NTS) are the major cause of hospitalization and death, and the emergence and spread of their antibiotic-resistance is becoming a worldwide health issue. This, coupled with the restrictions of antibiotics use in agriculture and animal production, calls for alternative approaches to solve this problem. Plant-derived aqueous extracts compounds could provide novel straightforward approaches to control pathogenic bacteria. This review discusses the antimicrobial activity of aqueous plant extracts against Salmonella serovars, the possible mechanisms of action involved, which components/structures might be responsible for such activity, and the current challenges for the use of these extracts/components in Salmonella infection management and their application perspectives.

Keywords: Salmonella serovars; antimicrobial activity; aqueous plant extracts; bioactive components.

Figure 1

Distribution of studies published in antimicrobial activity of plant extracts, using a search query with keywords ”antimicrobial Salmonella extract” OR “antibacterial Salmonella extract”, and ”antimicrobial extract” OR “antibacterial extract” in topic, from 2006 to 2018, via Web of Science^TM.

Figure 2

Diagram representing antibacterial activity of aqueous plant extracts on Salmonella serovars in vitro since 2006, expressed as minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) (see Table S1 in supplementary material). Grey lines connect the studies between each other through the colored nodes, which represent the plants part used, colored names represent names of plant species, and different colors/line widths represent different MIC ranges (see legend). As MICs increase the size of the letters of the plant, the species name get smaller.