Over a long period of time, humans have explored many natural resources looking for remedies of various ailments. Traditional medicines have played an intrinsic role in human life for thousands of years, with people depending on medicinal plants and their products as dietary supplements as well as using them therapeutically for treatment of chronic disorders, such as cancer, malaria, diabetes, arthritis, inflammation, and liver and cardiac disorders. However, plant resources are not sufficient for treatment of recently emerging diseases. In addition, the seasonal availability and other political factors put constrains on some rare plant species. The actual breakthrough in drug discovery came concurrently with the discovery of penicillin from Penicillium notatum in 1929. This discovery dramatically changed the research of natural products and positioned microbial natural products as one of the most important clues in drug discovery due to availability, variability, great biodiversity, unique structures, and the bioactivities produced. The number of commercially available therapeutically active compounds from microbial sources to date exceeds those discovered from other sources. In this review, we introduce a short history of microbial drug discovery as well as certain features and recent research approaches, specifying the microbial origin, their featured molecules, and the diversity of the producing species. Moreover, we discuss some bioactivities as well as new approaches and trends in research in this field.

The removal of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) as feed additives in poultry nutrition from the market in many countries has compelled researchers to find unconventional and safe alternatives to AGPs. Probiotics, prebiotics, enzymes, organic acids, herbs, immune-stimulants and essential oils (EO) have been investigated as feed additives in poultry production. Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), one of the oldest medicinal plants and widely used around the world, can be used in poultry rations in the form of powder or essential oil. Essential oils produced from aromatic plants have become more interesting owing to their potential effects as hypocholesterolaemic agents, antioxidants, antimicrobials, antifungals and stimulants of digestive enzymes. The potential insecticidal and antimicrobial activities of EO against pathogens that cause spoilage in agriculture crops and human diseases might be attributed mainly to the high content of volatile components (mainly cinnamaldehyde, eugenol and carvacrol) in cinnamon oil. The present review focuses on the effects of cinnamon oil as a feed additive on poultry performance, carcass traits, meat quality, hypocholesterolaemic impact, antioxidant activity, immunity and microbiological aspects.

As a result of the global industrial revolution, contamination of the ecosystem by heavy metals has given rise to one of the most important ecological and organismic problems, particularly human, early developmental stages of fish and animal life. The bioaccumulation of heavy metals in fish tissues can be influenced by several factors, including metal concentration, exposure time, method of metal ingestion and environmental conditions, such as water temperature. Upon recognizing the danger of contamination from heavy metals and the effects on the ecosystem that support life on earth, new ways of monitoring and controlling this pollution, besides the practical ones, had to be found. Diverse living organisms, such as insects, fish, planktons, livestock and bacteria can be used as bioindicators for monitoring the health of the natural ecosystem of the environment. Parasites have attracted intense interest from parasitic ecologists, because of the variety of different ways in which they respond to human activity contamination as prospective indices of environmental quality. Previous studies showed that fish intestinal helminths might consider potential bioindicators for heavy metal contamination in aquatic creatures. In particular, cestodes and acanthocephalans have an increased capacity to accumulate heavy metals, where, for example, metal concentrations in acanthocephalans were several thousand times higher than in host tissues. On the other hand, parasitic infestation in fish could induce significant damage to the physiologic and biochemical processes inside the fish body. It may encourage serious impairment to the physiologic and general health status of fish. Thus, this review aimed to highlight the role of heavy metal accumulation, fish histopathological signs and parasitic infestation in monitoring the ecosystem pollutions and their relationship with each other.

Poultry enterprises have sustained rapid development through the last three decennaries. For which reason, higher utilization of antibacterial, either as therapeutic or growth promoting agents, has been accepted. Owing to the concern of developing bacterial resistance among populations towards antibiotic generations, accumulation of antibacterial remaining’s in chicken products and elevating shopper request for outcomes without antibacterial remaining’s, looking for unconventional solutions that could exchange antibacterial without influencing productiveness or product characters. Using natural alternatives including ginger, garlic prebiotics, organic acids, plant extracts, etheric oils and immune stimulants have been applied to advance the performance, hold poultry productiveness, prevent and control the enteric pathogens and minimize the antibacterial utilization in the poultry production in recent years. The use of a single replacement or ideal assemblage of different choices besides good supervision and livestock welfare may play a basic role in maximizing benefits and preserving poultry productiveness. The object of this review was to support an outline of the recent knowledge on the use of the natural replacements (ginger and its derivatives) in poultry feed as feed additives and their effects on poultry performance, egg and meat quality, health as well as the economic efficiency.

Salmonellosis is one of the most important bacterial diseases in poultry, causing heavy economic losses, increased mortality and reduced production. The aim of this study was the comparative efficacy of a commercial probiotic and/or prebiotic with a live attenuated Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) vaccine on the protection of broiler chickens from SE challenge. The efficacy of probiotic or prebiotic products, as well as a live Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) vaccine at the 7th day of age, administered via drinking water, were evaluated for clinical protection and effects on growth performance of broiler chickens experimentally challenged with SE at the 28th day of age. The use of probiotic or prebiotic simultaneously with the live Salmonella vaccine can diminish the negative effect of live vaccine growth performance, reducing mortality rate, fecal shedding, and re-isolation of SE from liver, spleen, heart and cecum. The use of probiotic or prebiotic simultaneously with the application of the live Salmonella vaccine is a good practice to diminish the negative effect of the harmful bacteria and improve the growth performance of broilers. Thus, further studies may be carried out with layers and breeders.

The incidence of adverse reactions in food is very low, however, some food products contain toxins formed naturally due to their handling, processing and storage conditions. 5-(Hydroxymethyl)-2-furfural (HMF) can be formed by hydrogenation of sugar substances in some of manufactured foodstuffs and honey under elevated temperatures and reduced pH conditions following Maillard reactions. In previous studies, it was found that HMF was responsible for harmful (mutagenic, genotoxic, cytotoxic and enzyme inhibitory) effects on human health. HMF occurs in a wide variety of food products like dried fruit, juice, caramel products, coffee, bakery, malt and vinegar. The formation of HMF is not only an indicator of food storage conditions and quality, but HMF could also be used as an indicator of the potential occurrence of contamination during heat-processing of some food products such as coffee, milk, honey and processed fruits. This review focuses on HMF formation and summarizes the adverse effects of HMF on human health.