Antimicrobial properties of plant barks as a natural strategy to reduce antimicrobial resistance- A narrative review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70066/jahm.v14i6.2846Keywords:
Antimicrobial activity‚ Antimicrobial resistance‚ Natural products‚ Phytochemicals‚ Plant barks․Abstract
Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is both a rapidly growing and a major global threat to public health․ AMR reduces the efficacy of existing antibiotics‚ increasing both the morbidity and mortality of infections as well as the cost of healthcare․ Plants produce diverse bioactive secondary metabolites‚ some of which are obtained from the bark of plants and are thus an alternative source for the development of new antimicrobial drugs․ Methods: A systematic narrative review was conducted of studies retrieved from electronic databases such as PubMed‚ PubMed Central‚ Scopus‚ and Web of Science‚ using Boolean search strings to identify antimicrobial activity of bark plant extracts published between 2015 and 2025․ Results: We screened 40 studies based on PRISMA protocol and included them for qualitative analysis․ Plant barks contain phytochemicals of different classes with the most abundant class being phenolic compounds‚ followed by terpenoids‚ alkaloids‚ and saponins․ These compounds are broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents that work by various mechanisms including disruption of the membrane‚ inhibition of cell wall biosynthesis‚ inhibition of protein synthesis‚ inhibition of nucleic acid synthesis‚ enzyme inactivation and efflux pump inhibition․ The compounds were found to be active against MDR Staphylococcus aureus‚ Escherichia coli‚ Klebsiella pneumoniae and Candida albicans with MIC values ranging from very strong to medium levels of inhibition․ Others have shown in vivo wound healing ability and systemic antimicrobial activity․ Some methods of extraction have included microwave-assisted extraction and supercritical fluid extraction to maximize yield․ Conclusion: The results of this review suggest that plant bark extracts are promising sources of multi-targeting antimicrobial candidates against resistant pathogens and further mechanistic‚ standardization‚ and clinical studies are warranted toward their translation into the clinic․
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