Antibiotics have been used to cure bacterial infections for more than 70 years, and these low-molecular-weight bioactive agents have also been used for a variety of other medicinal applications. In the battle against microbes, antibiotics have certainly been a blessing to human civilization by saving millions of lives. Globally, infections caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria are on the rise. Antibiotics are being used to combat diversified bacterial infections. Synthetic biology techniques, in combination with molecular, functional genomic, and metagenomic studies of bacteria, plants, and even marine invertebrates are aimed at unlocking the world's natural products faster than previous methods of antibiotic discovery. There are currently only few viable remedies, potential preventive techniques, and a limited number of antibiotics, thereby necessitating the discovery of innovative medicinal approaches and antimicrobial therapies. MDR is also facilitated by biofilms, which makes infection control more complex. In this review, we have spotlighted comprehensively various aspects of antibiotics viz. overview of antibiotics era, mode of actions of antibiotics, development and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, and future strategies to fight the emerging antimicrobial resistant threat.

Eight selected wild vegetables from Nepal (Alternanthera sessilis, Basella alba, Cassia tora, Digera muricata, Ipomoea aquatica, Leucas cephalotes, Portulaca oleracea and Solanum nigrum) were investigated for their antioxidative potential using 2,2-dyphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and ferric thiocyanate (FTC) methods. Among the selected plant extracts C. tora displayed the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity with an IC₅₀ value 9.898 μg/mL, whereas A. sessilis had the maximum H₂O₂ scavenging activity with an IC₅₀ value 16.25 μg/mL—very close to that of ascorbic acid (16.26 μg/mL). C. tora showed the highest absorbance in the FRAP assay and the lowest lipid peroxidation in the FTC assay. A methanol extract of A. sessilis resulted in the greatest phenolic content (292.65 ± 0.42 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g) measured by the Folin–Ciocalteu reagent method, while the smallest content was recorded for B. alba (72.66 ± 0.46 GAE/g). The greatest flavonoid content was observed with extracts of P. oleracea (39.38 ± 0.57 mg quercetin equivalents (QE)/g) as measured by an aluminium chloride colorimetric method, while the least was recorded for I. aquatica (6.61 ± 0.42 QE/g). There was a strong correlation between antioxidant activity with total phenolic (DPPH, R² = 0.75; H₂O₂, R² = 0.71) and total flavonoid content (DPPH, R² = 0.84; H₂O₂, R² = 0.66). This study demonstrates that these wild edible leafy plants could be a potential source of natural antioxidants.

The genusCinnamomumincludes a number of plant species largely used as food, food additives and spices for a long time. Different traditional healing systems have used these plants as herbal remedies to cure diverse ailments. The aim of this comprehensive and updated review is to summarize the biodiversity of the genusCinnamomum, its bioactive compounds, the mechanisms that underlie the pharmacological activities and molecular targets and toxicological safety. All the data in this review have been collected from databases and recent scientific literature including Web of Science, PubMed, ScienceDirect etc. The results showed that the bioactive compounds ofCinnamomumspecies possess antimicrobial, antidiabetic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and neuroprotective effects. The preclinical (in vitro/in vivo) studies provided the possible molecular mechanisms of these action. As a novelty, recent clinical studies and toxicological data described in this paper support and confirm the pharmacological importance of the genusCinnamomum.In conclusion, the obtained results from preclinical studies and clinical trials, as well as reduced side effects provide insights into future research of new drugs based on extracts and bioactive compounds fromCinnamomumplants.

The brain is the body’s control center, so when a disease affects it, the outcomes are devastating. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis are brain diseases that cause a large number of human deaths worldwide. Curcumin has demonstrated beneficial effects on brain health through several mechanisms such as antioxidant, amyloid β-binding, anti-inflammatory, tau inhibition, metal chelation, neurogenesis activity, and synaptogenesis promotion. The therapeutic limitation of curcumin is its bioavailability, and to address this problem, new nanoformulations are being developed. The present review aims to summarize the general bioactivity of curcumin in neurological disorders, how functional molecules are extracted, and the different types of nanoformulations available.

Pectinases are the group of enzymes that catalyze the degradation of pectic substances. It has wide applications in food industries for the production and clarification of wines and juices. The aim of this study was to isolate, screen and characterize pectinase from fungi isolated from various soil samples and evaluate its application in juice clarification. Fungal strains were isolated and screened primarily using 1% citruspectin incorporated potato dextrose agar (PDA) and secondarily using pectinase screening agar medium (PSAM) for pectinolytic organisms. The enzyme was produced by submerged state fermentation and assayed using the dinitro salicylic acid (DNS) method. From 20 different soil samples, 55 fungal isolates were screened primarily and, among them, only 14 isolates were subjected for secondary screening. Out of 14, only four strains showed the highest pectinolytic activity. Among four strains, Aspergillus spp. Gm showed the highest enzyme production at a 48-h incubation period, 1% substrate concentration, and 30 °C temperature. The thermal stability assessment resulted that the activity of pectinase enzyme declines by 50% within 10 min of heating at 60 °C. The optimum temperature, pH, and substrate concentration for the activity of enzyme was 30 °C (75.4 U/mL), 5.8 (72.3 U/mL), and 0.5% (112.0 U/mL), respectively. Furthermore, the yield of the orange juice, the total soluble solid (TSS), and clarity (% transmittance) was increased as the concentration of the pectinase increased, indicating its potential use in juice processing. Overall, the strain Aspergillus spp. Gm was identified as a potent strain for pectinase production in commercial scale.