Potential usage of medicinal plants against various infectious diseases: A mini-review

Abstract

Despite advancements in the development of synthetic antimicrobial medicines, infectious diseases continue to pose a significant burden on world health. This is due to the setbacks linked to the use of these synthetic antimicrobial agents, which include drug resistance and toxicity. Therefore, the search for alternative therapeutic strategies are necessitated. Based on this, research has focused on the exploitation of medicinal plants, as they serve as reservoirs of various phytochemicals with a wide range of antimicrobial actions, in addition to their less or no detrimental effects. These include plants such as Moringa oleifera, Azadirachta indica, Psidium guajava, Zingiber officinale, among others. Thus, the present mini-review provides some medicinal plants and their use in the management of infectious diseases as well as their antimicrobial mechanistic actions.