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Medicinal Plants and Their Bacterial Microbiota: A Review on Antimicrobial Compounds Production for Plant and Human Health

Authors

Keywords:

medicinal plants, plant microbiota, bacterial endophytes, antimicrobials

Abstract

Medicinal plants (MPs) have been used since antiquity in traditional and popular medicine, and they represent a very important source of bioactive molecules, including antibiotic, antiviral, and antifungal molecules. Such compounds are often of plant origin, but in some cases, an origin or a modification from plant microbiota has been shown. Actually, the research continues to report the production of bioactive molecules by plants, but the role of plant–endophytic interaction is emerging. Classic examples are mainly concerned with fungal endophytes; however, it has been recently shown that bacterial endophytes can also play an important role in influencing the plant metabolism related to the synthesis of bioactive compounds. In spite of this, a deep investigation on the power of MP bacterial endophytes is lacking. Here, an overview of the studies on MP bacterial microbiota and its role in the production of plant antimicrobial compounds contributing to prime host defense system and representing a huge resource for biotech and therapeutic applications is provided. Keywords: medicinal plants, plant microbiota, bacterial endophytes, antimicrobials

Author Biography

Valentina Maggini, Department of Biology, University of Florence, 50019 Florence, Italy; [email protected] (L.M.C.); [email protected] (A.V.); [email protected] (A.M.); [email protected] (E.M.); [email protected] (P.B.)

CERFIT, Research and Innovation Center in Phytotherapy and Integrated Medicine, Tuscany Region, Careggi University Hospital, 50141 Florence, Italy; [email protected]

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