Opportunities for plant natural products in infection control

The continued spread of antimicrobial resistance represents one of the most serious infectious disease threats to global health. There is consensus that a key component of addressing this threat is to replenish the waning pipeline of antimicrobials, with attention being paid to novel mechanisms of action. This includes the development of new classes of classic bacteriostatic and bactericidal antibiotics as well as antivirulence drugs, and it is especially in these areas where plant natural products demonstrate great potential. To this end, we discuss the unique characteristics of plant natural products, the advantages of plants as a resource for anti-infective drug discovery, and recent technologies that have further enabled this path of inquiry. As a result of emerging realization of their advantages, plant natural products have recently enjoyed increased scrutiny in antimicrobial lead discovery, and they will continue to serve as a source of leads. We conclude that plant natural products represent a promising and largely untapped source of new chemical entities from which novel anti-infectives can be discovered.