Plant Products as Antimicrobial Agents
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TLDR
The current status of botanical screening efforts, as well as in vivo studies of their effectiveness and toxicity, are summarized and the structure and antimicrobial properties of phytochemicals are addressed.Abstract:
The use of and search for drugs and dietary supplements derived from plants have accelerated in recent years. Ethnopharmacologists, botanists, microbiologists, and natural-products chemists are combing the Earth for phytochemicals and “leads” which could be developed for treatment of infectious diseases. While 25 to 50% of current pharmaceuticals are derived from plants, none are used as antimicrobials. Traditional healers have long used plants to prevent or cure infectious conditions; Western medicine is trying to duplicate their successes. Plants are rich in a wide variety of secondary metabolites, such as tannins, terpenoids, alkaloids, and flavonoids, which have been found in vitro to have antimicrobial properties. This review attempts to summarize the current status of botanical screening efforts, as well as in vivo studies of their effectiveness and toxicity. The structure and antimicrobial properties of phytochemicals are also addressed. Since many of these compounds are currently available as unregulated botanical preparations and their use by the public is increasing rapidly, clinicians need to consider the consequences of patients self-medicating with these preparations.read more
Citations
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Biological effects of essential oils - A review
TL;DR: Findings suggest that, at least in part, the encountered beneficial effects of essential oils are due to prooxidant effects on the cellular level.
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Chemistry and Biological Activities of Flavonoids: An Overview
Shashank Kumar,Abhay K. Pandey +1 more
TL;DR: The structural features of flavonoids, their beneficial roles in human health, and significance in plants as well as their microbial production are highlighted.
Journal ArticleDOI
The biochemistry and medical significance of the flavonoids.
TL;DR: Flavonoids are plant pigments that are synthesised from phenylalanine, generally display marvelous colors known from flower petals, mostly emit brilliant fluorescence when they are excited by UV light, and are ubiquitous to green plant cells.
Journal ArticleDOI
Techniques for extraction of bioactive compounds from plant materials: A review
Jannatul Azmir,I.S.M. Zaidul,Md. Mokhlesur Rahman,K.M. Sharif,A. Mohamed,F. Sahena,M.H.A. Jahurul,Kashif Ghafoor,N.A.N. Norulaini,A.K.M. Omar +9 more
TL;DR: This review is aimed to discuss different extraction techniques along with their basic mechanism for extracting bioactive compounds from medicinal plants.
Phytochemical screening and Extraction: A Review
TL;DR: An attempt has been made to give an overview of certain extractants and extraction processes with their advantages and disadvantages of bioactive plant constituents.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Unconventional medicine in the United States. Prevalence, costs, and patterns of use.
David Eisenberg,Ronald C. Kessler,Cindy Foster,Frances E. Norlock,David R. Calkins,Thomas L. Delbanco +5 more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Antimicrobial properties of tannins
TL;DR: Tannin toxicity for fungi, bacteria and yeasts is reviewed and compared to toxicity of related lower molecular weight phenols and the dependence of toxicity on tannin structure is examined.
Book ChapterDOI
The flavonoids. A class of semi-essential food components: their role in human nutrition.
TL;DR: A review of the chemistry, the fate of food flavonoids, and their nutritional effects can be found in this paper, where the authors discuss the antibiotic and/or bacteriostatic effects of foods rich in these compounds.
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Ethnobotany: A Methods Manual
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Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, Second Edition
TL;DR: James A. Duke, Ph.D., retired from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1995 after a 35-year career there and elsewhere as an economic botanist as mentioned in this paper.
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