Abstract
The extensive search for therapeutic agents derived from higher plants has recently accelerated owing to the antibiotic resistance crisis, which is a serious warning to human healthcare worldwide. It is estimated that antibiotic-resistant infections will lead to nearly ten million yearly deaths at the global level by the year 2050. Thus, it is wise to search for new alternative antibiotics sources derived from higher plants to tackle this alarming antibiotic resistance crisis issue. Amongst the 250,000–500,000 plant species available in the World, only a small percentage (1–10%) of them have been explored by man. This data shows that there is a great opportunity for exploring these higher plants, which are rich in a wide variety of phytochemicals, and could be used as a good source to develop new antibacterial and antifungal agents. Moreover, the World Health Organization (WHO) suspects about four billion humans (about 80% of the world population) currently use herbal medicine as their primary healthcare. Therefore, this chapter is designated to discuss in detail the prospects of higher plants as antimicrobial agents. Also, this chapter attempts to summarize the antibiotic resistance crisis, current status of higher plants as antimicrobial agents, the extraction process of phytochemicals, in vitro and in vivo antimicrobial activity evaluations and the contribution of important phytochemicals, such as polyphenols, as antimicrobial agents. The methods presented in this chapter are illustrated for the bacterial and fungal model.
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Kirubakari, B. et al. (2019). Antibacterial and Antifungal Agents of Higher Plants. In: Akhtar, M., Swamy, M., Sinniah, U. (eds) Natural Bio-active Compounds. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7154-7_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7154-7_16
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