Antimicrobial Activity of Polyphenols and Natural Polyphenolic Extracts on Clinical Isolates

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is a growing global problem that affects people, animals, the environment, and the economy. Many clinically relevant bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics, and this fact is emerging as one of the major threats to public health. The lack of new antibiotics, which is due to their time-consuming and costly development, exacerbates the problem. Therefore, it is necessary to identify new antimicrobial agents to treat bacterial and fungal infections. Plant extracts, which are valuable sources of bioactive compounds, mainly polyphenols, play an important role as a new strategy to combat pathogenic microorganisms. There is an extensive body of supporting evidence for the potent antibacterial and antifungal activities of polyphenols. Furthermore, some polyphenols show a synergistic effect when combined with antibiotics and antifungals, suggesting a promising alternative for therapeutic strategies against antibiotic resistance. However, only a few articles are found when searching the antibacterial or antifungal activities of polyphenols employing clinical isolates. Hence, this review focuses on the antimicrobial activity of polyphenols and extracts rich in polyphenols on clinical isolates, organized according to the World Health Organization priority pathogens classification.

Total Polyphenols Content, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities of Leaves of Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav. from Morocco

“…[45] showed that flavonoids have significant antifungal properties against Candida spp. As polyphenols have powerful antibacterial properties, they could be crucial in a new approach to treating pathogenic microbes [46,47]. Alkaloids as well exhibit significant antibacterial activities against pathogenic microbial strains [48].…”

Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Properties of Helichrysum italicum (Roth) G. Don Hydrosol

“…As presented by Caniça et al [ 3 ], the co-circulation of commensal and pathogenic bacteria in different reservoirs enables the spreading of resistance and the rapid emergence of multidrug-resistant strains. While the lack of new antimicrobials exacerbates the problem, it is necessary to identify new agents for therapeutic strategies against AR [ 4 ].…”

Antibacterial potential and synergistic interaction between natural polyphenolic extracts and synthetic antibiotic on clinical isolates

“…Emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria is a grave issue that is responsible for prolonged infections and treatment failures. The majority of nosocomial infections now comprise of six resistant pathogenic isolates that have been grouped together as ESKAPE by the Infectious Disease Society of America ( Manso et al 2021 ). These include Enterococcus faecium, S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, Acinetobacter, P. aeruginosa and Enterobacter species.…”