Antibacterial and Antibiofilm Activity of Plant Extracts

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the spread of antibiotic resistance in the hospital environment and in communities where biofilms are involved has stimulated the development of innovative strategies that can solve this problem. Due to the slow spread of antibiotics through the biofilm matrix, the presence of biofilms represents a challenging eradication issue compared to planktonic.

The importance of polymicrobial infections caused by a mixture of bacteria and fungi is increasingly recognized in medical settings and their complexity represents an additional challenge to find an efficient treatment strategy.

Antibiotic abuse has led to increased clinical resistance of microorganisms and the occurrence of uncommon infections; many infections are caused by microorganisms that resist response to conventional treatment. It is necessary to develop new antimicrobial agents that can inhibit the formation of or destroy mature biofilms, increasing the susceptibility of microbes to antibiotics.

There is a growing interest in the use of compounds derived from medicinal plants as alternative antimicrobial agents.

These natural compounds can be used in some clinical procedures, but also in the food industry. Some of these compounds are essential oils or specific compounds directly derived from different plants, fruit, and/or spices as well as new compounds that are discovered regularly.

Prof. Marco Guida
Dr. Valeria Di Onofrio
Dr. Emilia Galdiero
Guest Editors

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