Revealing the Antimicrobial Potential of Plants

Abstract

Plants being capable of synthesizing a vast array of secondary metabolites with an timicrobial potential are a prospective source of new therapeutic agents. Methods for preparing crude plant extracts, and those for assessing their antimicrobial activity become important in this context , especially when the problem of drug resistance among pathogenic microbes has become prevalent . This review explores the different classes of secondary metabolites, various xtraction procedures followed by different assays hat can beused to determine their antimicrobial otential. The separation techniques suitable for solation and identification of the activecomponent(s) are also described.