Natural Antibacterial Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Contamination, infection, and growth of bacteria to large population numbers or the secretion of their toxins in the body cause many malfunctions to human health and sometimes lead to life-threatening complications. Bacterial contamination causes the loss of one-third of produced food annually, especially during production, packaging, transportation, and storage. For human health, bacteria represent a major threat to the mouth, skin, respiratory system, and digestive system and can also cause blood poisoning (bacteremia), kidney failure, and toxic shock that affects all human body systems. In animal production, bacteria cause the loss of many animals that are intensively raised, and animal diseases can be contagious to humans. To treat bacteria in order to inhibit them from spreading to populations where they may be harmful, intensive applications of antibiotics have been used. Uncontrolled applications of antibiotics in human health care, animal breeding, and food protection have caused the appearance of resistant bacteria that are not easily treated, and this has created interest in finding new antibacterial agents that have not been used before. Natural anti-bacterial materials have been proposed as the best solution to treat resistant bacteria because they have different antibacterial mechanisms and are environmentally-friendly.

The objective of this Special Issue is to compile information and research on recent antimicrobial materials from natural sources and their mechanisms in the prevention of bacterial contamination, as well as the elimination or inhibition of growth of bacteria in different systems. Investigators are invited to contribute their original research articles or review articles that could add value to the field of natural antibacterial materials; these could include but are not limited to the following:

• new antibacterial materials from natural sources
• techniques to enhance the activity of natural antibacterial materials in treating bacteria
• effects of environmental conditions on antibacterial activity and methods to enhance the antibacterial activity
• means of controlling the release of antibacterial materials

Prof. Dr. Lin Lin
Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Shafi
Prof. Dr. Yuntao Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• natural antibacterial materials
• antibacterial packaging
• antibiofilm
• antibacterial mechanisms
• triggered release antibacterial agents