ABSTRACT
There is a critical need to discover and create novel chemicals to battle human diseases due to the rising occurrence of life-threatening bacterial and viral illnesses and their propensity to develop resistance to existing treatment methods. These compounds need to be highly bioavailable, selective, and minimally hazardous. Typically, chemicals most suited for this job come from sources that are found in plants. The bioactive phenolics found in plants are abundant and useful resources. One of the most significant elements discovered in plant secondary metabolites are phenolic derivatives. Because of their utility in the pharmaceutical sector, there is a growing interest in studying various techniques for extracting, isolating, and purifying these chemicals from plants. By giving a logical foundation for the choice of chemical structure, computational and bioinformatics tools have sped up the discovery and design of antimicrobial drugs. Additional studies on the investigations of phytochemical compounds and molecular interactions are required for proper explanation of their antimicrobial activities. The identification of phenolic compounds in complex mixtures reveal biological effects, which can be difficult to carry out. In order to overcome this limitation, pulsed ultrafiltration mass spectrometer was employed for medicinal plant extract screening. This chapter therefore discusses phenolic compounds and their classifications, roles of phenolic compounds in human health, phenolic compound extraction, isolation and purification methods, plant phenolic compounds with antibacterial activity, synergistic antibacterial activity, phenolic compounds with antiviral and antifungal activities, bioinformatics approaches of molecular mechanisms in antimicrobial resistance, and future prospectives and limitations.
