Exploring Botanical Metabolites as Antibacterial and Antifungal Agents

Dear Colleagues,

The plant kingdom is a rich source of natural products or extracts that can be utilized for sterilization applications. This is evident from the vast records of traditional uses where anti-infective outcomes were achieved using medicinal plant parts, such as bark, leaves, fruits, roots or flowers. While the research of plant-based antimicrobial products is not meant to serve as a replacement for the more powerful clinical antibiotics in use today, such knowledge can be utilized for use as preservatives, as ingredients in surface sterilization liquids, for wound dressing and even as an aid in resolving gastrointestinal disturbances.

As an example, St John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) contains hyperforin, a polyprenylated acylphloroglucinol. This specialized metabolite is a known antimicrobial product capable of inhibiting Gram-positive bacteria at concentrations that are considered low for a plant-derived compound (1–10 µg.mL⁻¹). Although St John’s Wort is best known for use in stabilizing mood, it was traditionally used to resolve skin infections and when taken orally, will likely modulate the gut microbiome. Anecdotal accounts have attributed the use of St John’s Wort to resolving gastrointestinal disturbances.

Thus, antimicrobial products may be in our foods, preserving them and helping us with gastrointestinal health. They may be in our anti-infective medicines used in traditional societies, and they may also be the result of a coincidental combination of ingredients in a salad, a meal, or a medicinal product formulation. Antimicrobial effects may be explained by single active compounds, or they may be explained by a synergism between two or more components. To the latter point, a complex interaction of components may be occurring within a species, or by combining two or more species or plant organs. Hence, antimicrobial studies also uncover active systems, in addition to single working parts.

The current Special Issue is dedicated to antimicrobial outcomes derived by the use of plant extracts, isolated phyto-compounds and synergism/antagonism studies. We welcome manuscripts where minimum inhibitory concentrations have been derived from the microtitre plate broth dilution method.

Dr. Nicholas J. Sadgrove
Guest Editor

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• natural product
• minimum inhibitory concentration
• pathogen
• traditional medicine