Plant-Derived Antibiotics

The ‘Plant-Derived Antibiotics’ Section of the journal Antibiotics publishes original research and review articles reporting on antimicrobial effects of phytochemicals. The purpose of this Section is to address the need for new and complementary antimicrobials from plant sources. In particular, but not exclusively, the Section invites contributions that examine the following topics:

• The isolation, structural elucidation, and antimicrobial (antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and antiparasitic) characterization of phytochemicals.
• Synergistic effects of phytochemical components, either as a combination of components or as an enhancement of the activities of known antibiotics.
• Structure–activity relationships of antimicrobial phytochemicals.
• Antimicrobial effects of characterized essential oils.
• The application and practical use of antimicrobial phytochemicals in stored products, foods, or medicinal preparations (in vitro or in vivo).
• Ethnobotanical studies of anti-infectious herbal medicines with clear relation to the chemical composition of the material.
• Mechanisms of activity of antimicrobial phytochemicals.
• The clinical evaluation of antimicrobial phytochemicals or characterized herbal formulations.
• Phytochemical structures as scaffolds for the development of new antimicrobials.
• Tannins.
• Essential oils.  
• Terpenes.
• Plant polymers such as antimicrobial peptides.
• Secondary metabolites.
• Quorum sensing.
• Membrane perturbation.
• Anti-biofilms.
• Enzyme inhibition.
• Efflux pumps.
• Plant probiotic microbes.
• New plant probiotics.
• Antibiotics from plant endophytic bacteria.

Manuscripts discussing the screening of crude plant extracts or zone-of-inhibition assays will not normally be considered for publication in this Section. Biological activities should be further quantified by MIC, IC50, or other statistical determinations.