Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Sep 27;9(10):2041.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms9102041.

Towards Advances in Medicinal Plant Antimicrobial Activity: A Review Study on Challenges and Future Perspectives

Natalia Vaou  1 , Elisavet Stavropoulou  2 , Chrysa Voidarou  3 , Christina Tsigalou  4 , Eugenia Bezirtzoglou  1
Affiliations
Review

Towards Advances in Medicinal Plant Antimicrobial Activity: A Review Study on Challenges and Future Perspectives

Natalia Vaou et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

The increasing incidence of drug- resistant pathogens raises an urgent need to identify and isolate new bioactive compounds from medicinal plants using standardized modern analytical procedures. Medicinal plant-derived compounds could provide novel straightforward approaches against pathogenic bacteria. This review explores the antimicrobial activity of plant-derived components, their possible mechanisms of action, as well as their chemical potential. The focus is put on the current challenges and future perspectives surrounding medicinal plants antimicrobial activity. There are some inherent challenges regarding medicinal plant extracts and their antimicrobial efficacy. Appropriate and optimized extraction methodology plant species dependent leads to upgraded and selective extracted compounds. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests for the determination of the antimicrobial activity of plant extracts may show variations in obtained results. Moreover, there are several difficulties and problems that need to be overcome for the development of new antimicrobials from plant extracts, while efforts have been made to enhance the antimicrobial activity of chemical compounds. Research on the mechanisms of action, interplay with other substances, and the pharmacokinetic and/or pharmacodynamic profile of the medicinal plant extracts should be given high priority to characterize them as potential antimicrobial agents.

Keywords: antimicrobial activity; bioactive compounds; challenges; future perspectives; medicinal plants; new antimicrobials.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mechanisms of antimicrobial agents and resistance by pathogens.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The process of discovering bioactive compounds.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Medicinal plants in the development of new antimicrobials.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Mishra A., Sharma A., Kumar S., Saxena A., Pandey A. Bauhinia. Variegataleaf Extracts Exhibit Considerable Antibacterial, Antioxidant, And Anticancer Activities. BioMed Res. Int. 2013;2013:1–10. doi: 10.1155/2013/915436. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Duraipandiyan V., Ayyanar M., Ignacimuthu S. Antimicrobial Activity of some Ethnomedicinal Plants Used by Paliyar Tribe from Tamil Nadu, India. BMC Complement. Altern. Med. 2006;6 doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-6-35. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chin Y., Balunas M., Chai H., Kinghorn A. Drug Discovery from Natural Sources. AAPS J. 2006;8:e239–e253. doi: 10.1007/BF02854894. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Christenhusz M., Byng J. The Number of Known Plants Species in the World Aand its Annual Increase. Phytotaxa. 2016;261:21–217. doi: 10.11646/phytotaxa.261.3.1. - DOI
    1. MNPS Medicinal Plant Names Services (MNPS) [(accessed on 14 August 2021)]. Available online: https://www.kew.org/science/our-science/science-services/medicinal-plant....

LinkOut - more resources