Authors: Sanjana Patel, Dr. Mukul Kumar Shrivastava
Abstract: Medicinal herbs are a significant corner post of traditional therapies utilized in the majority of the world for generations and are the richest natural resources for disease treatment in the possession. But the swift emergence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria threatens synthetic antibiotics. Medicinal plants possess high potential and variety of bioactive compounds having an exceptional and significant antibacterial activity. Saponins, alkaloids, terpenoids, phenolics, flavonoids and essential oils that are effective in inhibiting the multiplication of bacteria and treating diseases caused by drug-resistant strains of pathogens. This review seeks to the antibacterial activity of several medicinal plants and how they may be applied to treat bacterial diseases. Some of the plants includes Psilotum nudum, Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha), Tinospora cordifolia (Giloy), Phyllanthus niruri (Stonebreaker), Centella asiatica (Gotu Kola), and Plumbago zeylanica (Chitrak) that have significant antimicrobial activities. For instance, Withania somnifera has withanolides which are well-documented to be strong antibacterial agents, and Plumbago zeylanica is effective due to plumbagin, a quinonoid alkaloid with powerful bactericidal activity. The rising antibiotic resistance prevalence has increased the quest to find new antimicrobial drugs. Plants-based antibacterial compounds offer a potential alternative in that they employ a range of mechanisms to inhibit bacterial growth, reducing the likelihood of resistance occurrence. Notable examples include allicin from Allium sativum (garlic), which inhibits gram-positive and negative bacteria, and curcumin from Curcuma longa (turmeric), that prevents Staphylococcus aureus from growing and Salmonella. Origanum vulgare (oregano) and Thymus vulgaris (thyme) essential oils have significant antibacterial properties against respiratory and foodborne infections, respectively. Although these properties seem very promising, the significance of these findings cannot be seen in practice without resolving several challenges. The phytochemical composition of medicinal plants varies based on geography and environmental factors and hence leads to inconsistency in results. The lack of standard extraction technique and very few conducted clinical trials also restrict the use of the herb-based antibacterial agent. The next step in the development of such herbal medicines is the standardization of extraction and characterization methods of phytochemicals and thorough preclinical and clinical studies to establish their safety profiles and mechanisms of action. Isolation of active compounds by means of metabolomics and bioassay-guided fractionation would also further assist in establishing specific antibacterial mechanisms. This review provides the overall information about different medicinal plants and their antibacterial activity.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19842630
