Medicinal Plants as Therapeutic Alternatives to Combat Mycobacterium tuberculosis: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is a serious infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and a significant health concern worldwide. The main threat to the elimination of TB is the development of resistance by MTB to the currently used antibiotics and more extended treatment methods, which is a massive burden on the health care system. As a result, there is an urgent need to identify new, effective therapeutic strategies with fewer adverse effects. The traditional medicines found in South Asia and Africa have a reservoir of medicinal plants and plant-based compounds that are considered another reliable option for human beings to treat various diseases. Abundant research is available for the biotherapeutic potential of naturally occurring compounds in various diseases but has been lagging in the area of TB. Plant-based compounds, or phytoproducts, are being investigated as potential anti-mycobacterial agents by reducing bacterial burden or modulating the immune system, thereby minimizing adverse effects. The efficacy of these phytochemicals has been evaluated through drug delivery using nanoformulations. This review aims to emphasize the value of anti-TB compounds derived from plants and provide a summary of current research on phytochemicals with potential anti-mycobacterial activity against MTB. This article aims to inform readers about the numerous potential herbal treatment options available for combatting TB.

Navigating bioactivity space in anti-tubercular drug discovery through the deployment of advanced machine learning models and cheminformatics tools: a molecular modeling based retrospective study

“…Tuberculosis (TB) has been proclaimed a global public health emergency by the WHO ( Adeniji et al, 2018 ). As a result, discovering novel medications effective against MDR (Multidrug-resistant) TB, extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR TB), and latent TB is a key priority ( Dwivedi et al, 2011 ; Gautam et al, 2023 ). Directly Observed Treatment Short is one of the most common anti-TB strategies (DOTS).…”

Recent research progress in the plant contribution to the management of tuberculosis

“…Such activity was confirmed for terpenes: limonene, myrcene, bisabolol, and α‐pinene, which changed the M. tuberculosis cells shape and cytoplasm homogeneity (Sieniawska et al, 2015), but also for cinnamon essential oil composed proximately of cinnamaldehyde, which caused remodeling of the cell wall and membrane in mycobacterial cells (Sieniawska et al, 2020b). Importantly, the disorganization of the cell membrane leads to nonspecific secondary effects, like the dysfunction of the efflux pumps and disturbances in energy production affecting other cellular processes and leading to cell death (Gautam et al, 2023). Some of the effects observed in mycobacterial cells exposed to natural products are common (upregulation of the lipid molecules needed in the formation of the cell wall layers; activation of detoxification mechanisms and reactive species scavengers; changes in genes coding stress‐responsive sigma factors) (Sawicki et al, 2022a; Sieniawska et al, 2020b, 2021a), while others specific for the stressing agents (disruption of bacterial cell envelope surface and release of cell components to the medium caused by tanshinones, or induction of N6‐tuberculosinyladenosine formation in mycobacterial cells by garlic sulfides) (Figure 5) (Sawicki et al, 2023; Sieniawska et al, 2021b).…”

“…Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) values are two basic indicators ranking the activity of studied samples. Numerous research evaluated the antimycobacterial potential of local, endemic, or rare plant extracts, for example, from Iran (Dehestani et al, 2022), Uganda (Oloya et al, 2022), or Namibia (Raidron et al, 2022), or reviewed activity of various plant extracts (Chevtchouk Jurno et al, 2019; Gautam et al, 2023; Li et al, 2013; Sarkar et al, 2021) and endophytes from medicinal plants (Alvin et al, 2014), including potential synergistic interactions of plant products with antibiotics (Rahgozar et al, 2018; Sieniawska et al, 2018).…”

Traditional Medicinal Plants with Significant Protection Against Antitubercular Drug-induced Liver Injury: A Systematic Review

“…7 For instance, RIF causes thrombocytopenia, pain, nausea, and hepatitis in combination with other drugs; PZA leads to oxidative stress, arthralgia, and hepatitis through the 5-hydroxypyrazinoic acid; neuritis and color blindness are linked to ethambutol toxicity; while ethionamide leads to diarrhea and hepatotoxicity. 8, 9 Collectively, these ATDs elicit toxic metabolites, free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) to become the main cause of injury to the liver. 10 Studies are in progress to find alternate medications from plant sources to avoid such side effects.…”