A Review on Antimicrobial Activity of Medicinal Plants Against Human Pathogens

Abstract

The discovery and development of antibiotics are among the most powerful and successful achievements of modern science and technology for the control of infectious diseases. However, the rate of resistance of pathogenic microorganisms to conventionally used antimicrobial agents is increasing with an alarming frequency (Ge et al., 2002; Nair and Chanda 2005; Neogi et al., 2008). Isolation of microbial agents less susceptible to regular antibiotics and recovery of resistant isolates during antibacterial therapy is increasing throughout the world (Cohen 2002; Hancock 2005). In addition to this problem antibiotics are sometimes associated with adverse side effects on the host, which include hypersensitivity, depletion of beneficial gut and mucosal microorganisms, immune suppression and allergic reactions (Al-Jabri 2005).