Comparing Phytochemicals and Conventional Antibiotics: Mechanisms, Affinities, and Therapeutic Potential Review

Authors

  • Dr. Surya Narayan Das Prof Cum Principal, Gayatri College of Pharmacy, Sambalpur, INDIA.
  • Akshya Kumar Mishra Associate Prof, Department of Microbiology, BKCP, Nuapada, INDIA.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55544/jrasb.4.3.4

Keywords:

Phytochemicals, Conventional Antibiotics, Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, Synergistic Potential, Antibacterial Mechanisms, Binding Affinities, Therapeutic Applications, Integrated Strategy

Abstract

By the way, this current project is going to demonstrate to us the role of phytochemicals in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria together with the traditional antibiotics. The antibacterial mechanisms of the various phytochemicals from different plants are not limited to just a single one e.g., enzyme inhibition. They also include cell membrane disruption and DNA synthesis inhibition. EGCG, curcumin, and cinnamaldehyde exhibited almost the same effectiveness as the usual antibiotics which become the first step if these compounds are used either individually or in combination with the usual antibiotics. While the conventional antibiotics may be more potent against bacteria, phytochemicals are less toxic and have a reduced chance of resistance insurgence. Based on this review, natural products from plants must be combined with standard treatments in search of enhanced treatment efficacy and, consequently, expanded choices in treatments. The findings have also proved that phytochemicals are effective antimicrobial agents and play a role in a multifaceted approach in the fight against bacterial infection and resistance to antibiotics.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Al-Dhabi, N. A., Ghilan, A. K., Arasu, M. V., & Duraipandiyan, V. (2014). Quercetin as a novel antibacterial agent against Escherichia coli. Journal of Pure and Applied Microbiology, 8(6), 4429-4435.

Albuquerque, R. C., & Silva, E. H. (2009). Resveratrol: Antimicrobial effects against Bacillus subtilis. Journal of Applied Microbiology, 106(6), 1963–1970.

Andriole, V. T. (2005). The quinolones: Past, present, and future. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 41(Suppl_2), S113–S119.

Arora, D., Mehta, P., Verma, R., & Kaur, S. (2016). Molecular docking study of curcumin with DNA gyrase. Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics, 34(3), 522–532.

Bansal, S., Chhibber, S., & Harjai, K. (2013). Comparative antibacterial activity of green tea polyphenols and conventional antibiotics against Escherichia coli. Journal of Antibiotics, 66(6), 303–308.

Bhattacharya, A., Chatterjee, R., & Dutta, S. (2017). Docking studies of quercetin as an antibacterial agent. Journal of Natural Products, 80(5), 1350–1358.

Borlinghaus, J., Albrecht, F., Gruhlke, M. C. H., Nwachukwu, I. D., & Slusarenko, A. J. (2014). Allicin: Chemistry and biological properties. Molecules, 19(8), 12591–12618.

Brötz, H., Bierbaum, G., Reynolds, P. E., & Sahl, H. G. (1998). Penicillin-binding proteins and the mechanism of action of beta-lactams. Microbial Drug Resistance, 4(3), 223–230.

Campbell, E. A., Korzheva, N., Mustaev, A., Murakami, K., Nair, S., Goldfarb, A., & Darst, S. A. (2001). Structure of the RNA polymerase–rifampicin complex: Insights into rifampicin inhibition of RNA synthesis. Cell, 104(6), 901–912.

Chopra, I., & Roberts, M. (2001). Tetracycline antibiotics: Mode of action, applications, molecular biology, and epidemiology of bacterial resistance. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 65(2), 232–260.

Cowen, L. E., Sanglard, D., Howard, S. J., Rogers, P. D., & Perlin, D. S. (2015). Mechanisms of antifungal drug resistance. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine, 5(7), a019752.

Cui, H., Wang, H., & Yu, Y. (2015). Antibacterial activity and mechanism of action of plant secondary metabolites. Molecules, 20(3), 5725–5740.

Cutler, R. R., & Wilson, P. (2004). Antibacterial activity of a new, stable, aqueous extract of allicin against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. British Journal of Biomedical Science, 61(2), 71–74.

Devi, K. P., Nisha, S. A., Sakthivel, R., & Pandian, S. K. (2010). Eugenol: Antimicrobial agent and its potential in treating bacterial infections. Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, 2(6), 1–5.

Drlica, K., & Zhao, X. (1997). DNA gyrase, topoisomerase IV, and the 4-quinolones. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 61(3), 377–392.

Falagas, M. E., Rafailidis, P. I., Matthaiou, D. K., & Karageorgopoulos, D. E. (2010). Polymyxins: Old antibiotics for the new millennium. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 23(2), 407–427.

Gupta, A., Singh, B., Sharma, C., & Kumar, D. (2019). Docking studies of allicin as an antibacterial agent. Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, 88, 72–81.

Gupta, V., Sharma, P., Kumar, S., & Singh, M. (2015). Docking analysis of thymol as an antibacterial agent. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 115, 1–8.

Jadhav, S., Pawar, S., Desai, P., & Patil, A. (2013). Docking analysis of eugenol and its analogs as potent inhibitors of bacterial cell membrane proteins. Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science, 3(10), 129–136.

Jayaweera, J. A. S., Fernando, S., & Ranasinghe, A. (2019). Molecular docking studies of ciprofloxacin with DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV. Journal of Molecular Structure, 1189, 1–8.

Kar, A., Mitra, K., Banerjee, S., & Basu, S. (2015). Berberine binding to topoisomerase IV: A molecular docking study. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, 45(6), 578–584.

Li, Y., Liu, R., & Wu, X. (2016). The potential of flavonoids in the prevention and treatment of bacterial infections. Microbial Pathogenesis, 99, 38–45.

Li, Y., Zhang, X., Wang, Y., & Chen, H. (2017). Resveratrol binding to bacterial FtsZ protein: A molecular docking study. Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, 79, 108–117.

Li, Z., Hu, Y., & Yang, X. (2014). Levofloxacin interaction with DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 69(2), 320–327.

Liu, Y., Luo, Y., Chen, Y., & Shu, Y. (2012). Saponins as antibacterial agents and their potential application in treating bacterial infections. Journal of Natural Products, 75(8), 1449–1455.

Man, S., Zhang, W., & Liu, S. (2010). Antibacterial properties of saponins from a traditional Chinese medicine in the genus Lonicera. Molecules, 15(4), 2942–2952.

Marchese, A., Barbieri, R., Coppo, E., Orhan, I. E., Daglia, M., Nabavi, S. F., ... & Nabavi, S. M. (2016). Antimicrobial activity of thymol: A comprehensive review of the literature. Critical Reviews in Microbiology, 42(3), 405–425.

Marchese, A., Barbara, M., & Peana, A. T. (2017). Antimicrobial and antifungal activities of eugenol and essential oils containing eugenol. Microbial Pathogenesis, 104, 141–148.

Marchese, A., Orhan, I. E., Daglia, M., Barbieri, R., Di Lorenzo, A., Nabavi, S. F., ... & Nabavi, S. M. (2017). Antibacterial and antifungal activities of thymol: A brief review. Foods, 6(10), 76.

McClure, N. S., & Cech, T. R. (2017). Molecular mechanism of rifampicin resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 292(2), 847–857.

Newman, D. J., & Cragg, G. M. (2020). Natural products as sources of new drugs over the nearly four decades from 1981 to 2019. Journal of Natural Products, 83(3), 770–803.

Rao, M., Reddy, T., & Patil, M. (2016). Docking analysis of saponins and their potential antibacterial activity. Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science, 6(8), 120–126.

Roca, I., Akova, M., Baquero, F., Carlet, J., Cavaleri, M., Coenen, S., ... & Vila, J. (2015). The global threat of antimicrobial resistance: science for intervention. New Microbes and New Infections, 6, 22–29.

Sharma, P., Sharma, D., & Kaur, R. (2016). Antibacterial activity of resveratrol against multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 363(21), fnw215.

Silverman, J. A., Mortin, L. I., VanPraagh, A. D., Li, T., & Alder, J. (2003). Molecular mechanism of daptomycin action. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 47(8), 2538–2544.

Silverman, J. A., Perlmutter, N. G., & Shapiro, H. M. (2005). Effect of daptomycin on membrane potential. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 49(1), 34–41.

Singh, S., Kumar, P., Aggarwal, A., & Chaudhary, V. (2018). Docking studies of cinnamaldehyde with bacterial enoyl-ACP reductase. Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, 83, 14–23.

Smith, S., Johnson, L., Williams, M., & Brown, A. (2015). Molecular docking and dynamic simulation study of EGCG binding with bacterial DNA gyrase. Biochemical Pharmacology, 96(1), 24–33.

Steinmann, J., Popp, J., & Hauser, C. (2013). Antibacterial activity of green tea polyphenols against clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Medicinal Food, 16(4), 332–339.

Sykes, R. B., Matthew, M., Tsai, Y. H., & Sutcliffe, J. A. (2010). Penicillin-binding proteins: The key to beta-lactam efficacy. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 65(1), 1–4.

Tanaka, T., Ikeda, T., Yamamoto, A., & Kumagai, A. (2006). Cinnamaldehyde: Antibacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Journal of Natural Products, 69(11), 1603–1605.

Tyagi, P., & Malik, A. (2015). Curcumin as an antibacterial agent. Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, 4, 1–10.

Tyagi, P., Singh, M., Kumari, H., & Kumari, A. (2015). Curcumin exhibits antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 104(2), 651–656.

Velkov, T., Thompson, P. E., Nation, R. L., & Li, J. (2010). Colistin interactions with the bacterial outer membrane. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 65(5), 877–884.

Velkov, T., Thompson, P. E., Nation, R. L., & Li, J. (2013). The complex mechanism of polymyxin-induced nephrotoxicity. Pharmacological Reviews, 65(3), 527–553.

Vilchèze, C., & Jacobs, W. R. (2007). The mechanism of isoniazid killing: Clarity through the scope of genomics. Journal of Cell Science, 120(4), 643–654.

Vilchèze, C., Weisbrod, T. R., Chen, B., Kremer, L., Hazbón, M. H., Wang, F., Alland, D., Sacchettini, J. C., & Jacobs, W. R., Jr. (2007). Mechanism of action and resistance of isoniazid. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 51(7), 2464–2473.

Wang, Y., Liu, S. L., & Ma, L. (2009). Berberine inhibits bacterial growth and extends the lifespan of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected mice. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 64(4), 772–775.

Wilton, J. H., Barker, D. F., & Manning, S. D. (1999). Binding affinity of norfloxacin to DNA gyrase. Biochemical Pharmacology, 58(3), 495–501.

World Health Organization. (2020). Antimicrobial resistance. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance

Downloads

Published

2025-06-10

How to Cite

Das, S. N., & Mishra, A. K. (2025). Comparing Phytochemicals and Conventional Antibiotics: Mechanisms, Affinities, and Therapeutic Potential Review. Journal for Research in Applied Sciences and Biotechnology, 4(3), 27–34. https://doi.org/10.55544/jrasb.4.3.4

Issue

Section

Articles

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.

Most read articles by the same author(s)