Natural Medicinal Products

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major cause of human suffering that impairs the trust relationships between doctors and their patients, concomitant with huge economic losses. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), medicinal plants would be the best source to obtain a variety of drugs. Many plants have been used because of their antimicrobial traits, which are due to phytochemicals synthesized in the secondary metabolism of the plant . Plants are rich in a wide variety of secondary metabolites such as tannins, alkaloids, phenolic compounds, and flavonoids, which have been found in vitro to have antimicrobial properties. Plants have played a unique holistic role for the provision of food, drugs, clothing, shelter, etc. Natural compounds have been extensively explored for new drug discoveries. Indeed, plants have been used as medicines for more than 5000 years as a source of antibiotics. . The emergence and spread of multidrug resistant pathogens have substantially threatened the current antibacterial therapy. This has necessitated a search for a new source of antimicrobial substances such as plants as they produce a variety of bioactive compounds.

Autorentext

Dr. Richa Sharma is working as an Associate Professor, Dept of Microbiology, Mahatma Gandhi University of Medical Sciences & Technology, Jaipur. She has published more than 85 research papers in globally accepted databases and various chapters in book.Dr. Gajanand Sharma is working as a Head, Dept of Chemistry, MPS International, Jaipur.