ABSTRACT
Antimicrobial resistance emerges in microbes due to the misuse and overuse of antibiotics which has made a lot of traditional medicine ineffective. Recent study suggested that, to overcome these problems, medicinal plant-derived phytochemicals may be a good alternative. Phytochemicals, mainly secondary metabolites have effective antimicrobial activities against different microbes. This chapter has discussed the antimicrobial activity of different medicinal plant-derived phytochemicals, green synthesized nanoparticles, their probable mode of action as inhibition of protein synthesis, replication and transcription, cell-wall biosynthesis, and destruction of the cell-wall, antibiotic resistance mechanisms of bacteria, diverse group of plant secondary metabolites (alkaloids, sulfur-containing compounds, phenolic compounds, terpenes, and coumarins), the mechanism of action of phytochemicals of different chemical classes, and the interaction between phytochemicals and conventional antibiotics. Furthermore, this chapter has discussed the future prospects of medicinal plant-derived phytochemicals as new antimicrobial drugs.
