Plant-derived extracts and conventional drugs: A new frontier in antimicrobial therapy

The discovery of novel therapies and the provenance of antimicrobial medication are critically important, as antimicrobial resistance is becoming more common because of the presence and continuous evolution of antimicrobial-resistant organisms. Studies regarding synergy in medicinal plant extracts with antimicrobials have emerged as a novel and important research field. The synergy itself can serve as a beneficial tactic to strengthen and replenish antimicrobial medications that are currently less effective in clinical settings when treating microbial infections that are multi-resistant. The current work is a web-based search performed using PubMed, which covered studies that were published over more than a 25-year period, specifically between 1997 and July 2024, and assessed the potential for synergy between plant extracts and conventionally prescribed antimicrobial medications. The findings of the current review held great promise for the development of novel plant-based remedies combined with clinical-in-use antimicrobial medications to be exceptionally successful in treating severe infections that are resistant to antimicrobial treatments alone.