Enlisting plants in the battle for new antibacterial compounds
Dane Lyddiard A and Ben W Greatrex B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Biomedical Science
School of Science and Technology
University of New England
Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Tel: +61 2 6773 4050
Fax: +61 2 6773 3267
Email: dlyddia2@une.edu.au
B Pharmacy
School of Rural Medicine
University of New England
Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Tel: +61 2 6773 2402
Fax: +61 2 6773 3267
Email: ben.greatrex@une.edu.au
Microbiology Australia 40(4) 169-172 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA19050
Published: 8 November 2019
Abstract
A rise in antibacterial drug resistance comes at a time when our once reliable sources of antibacterial natural products, bacteria and fungi, are failing us. The search for new drugs to fight pathogens has led to a range of innovative approaches and includes screening organisms which have developed evolutionary adaptions to prevent bacterial attack. The discovery of antibacterial phytochemicals from plants can be achieved using an activity-guided platform involving biological and chemical pre-screening, compound isolation, structure elucidation, and the direct testing of isolated compounds. Challenges include the clean isolation of natural products, avoiding the rediscovery of known compounds, toxicity, and poor levels of activity.
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