DEVELOPMENT OF HERBAL MITIGATOR TARGETING MULTI DRUG RESISTANT NOSOCOMIAL PATHOGEN

Abstract

Antibiotics have been used since several decades to treat patients from infectious diseases which altogether have resulted in reduced illness and death. The use of these antibiotics in patient care has been massivelyfavorable, when prescribed and taken correctly. However, these drugs have been used so widely and for a prolonged time, which the infectious organisms have adapted to them, making the drugs less effective. Several categories of drug resistant bacteria are now-a- days used in medical literature to characterize the different patterns of resistance spread found in healthcare-associated, antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. These patterns of resistance are acquired through mutation and horizontal gene transfer. Articulation of the drug resistance has led to such situations where, harmful bacteria once controlled through antibiotics are now virtually uncontrollable. As a result of emergence of multidrug resistant microbes, new alternatives are continually being searched, that could overcome the development of multi-drug resistance and hence aid in the suitable treatment of infectious diseases. Therapy involving combinations of antimicrobials exhibiting multiple target sites are being used as an alternative by the medical practitioners to curb drug resistance. Parallel to these therapies, herbal plants have contributed immensely in managing microbial infections, as herbal medicaments contain various antimicrobial constituents like tannins, terpenoids, alkaloids and flavonoids . Hence, herbal plants have been considered as an innovative remedy for the Department of Biotechnology, Delhi Technological Universitymanagement of diseases which have been associated with antibiotic resistant microbes. Also a country like India, where folk medicinal literatures like Ayurveda, Unani have been followed since ages, has no dearth of medicinal plants which are a starting framework for remedial agents, being used for maintaining human health, supported by medical benefits and cultural believes.