Medicinal and aromatic plants are increasingly becoming the focus of many researchers in the search for alternative antimicrobial agents due to their large number of diverse bioactive compounds called phytochemicals. Persea americana (Avocado) is an evergreen tree plant known for its healthy fruit and has been used in the management of disease and infections. The stem bark of P. americana was investigated for its phyto-constituents and antimicrobial activity using standard methods. The stem bark was preponderant in polyphenolic compounds of which flavonoid was found to be abundant (480.01), the antimicrobial activity study of the extracts also showed good inhibitory activity on all the tested strains with K. oxytoca (27.50 ± 0.67 mm) and A. flavus (88.89%) mostly susceptible in a concentration-dependent manner. The study revealed that P. americana extracts could be explored in the search for alternative antimicrobial agents.

It is no longer news that a novel strain of coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 is ravaging the health sector worldwide, several attempts have been made to curtail this pandemic via repurposing of old drugs but at the present, available drugs are not adequately effective. Over the year, plant phytochemicals are increasingly becoming an alternative source of an antimicrobial agent with a novel mechanism of action and limited side effects compared to synthetic drugs. Isolated saponins and tannins were evaluated for antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 M^pro via Molecular Docking and it was observed that a handsome number of the phytochemicals had binding affinity much better than Remdesivir, Dexamethasone, and N3 inhibitor which were used as the standard in this study. Further Investigation of drug-likeness, ADMET profile, and bioactivity of these phytochemicals revealed that binding affinity alone is not enough in the drug discovery process and that 4 hit compounds were identified as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2Mpro. This preliminary study furnishes Ellagic acid, Arjunic acid, Theasapogenol B, and Euscaphic acid as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 M^pro with better pharmacokinetics and bioavailability compared to Remdesivir which is currently used compassionately.

Medicinal plants are rich in bioactive compounds that can serve as precursors for the synthesis of alternative agents with minimal side effects, as opposed to synthetic drugs. Many microorganisms have developed resistance to available antibiotics; hence, there is a need to search for alternative antimicrobial agents from plants. This study aimed to extract and characterize essential oil from Tithonia diversifolia leaves and to evaluate its antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. The Oil was extracted by hydro-distillation and characterized by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Antimicrobial activity was assessed by the disc diffusion method, and antioxidant potential was evaluated by the DPPH method. The plant material yielded 10 mL of oil (0.66%), GC-MS analysis identified 43 compounds, with Norborneol (16.52%) as the most abundant. The extract had the highest inhibitory activity on Proteus mirabilis (43.00 mm) at a concentration of 100 mg/ml compared with gentamicin (reference standard) (34.00 mm). The inhibitory effects showed a dose-dependent pattern, as observed through minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values. Antioxidant analysis revealed the oil’s IC50 value as 0.087 µg/mL, compared to 0.024 µg/mL for the standard Vitamin C, indicating moderate antioxidant potential. In Conclusion, the essential oil from Tithonia diversifolia is highly promising as a natural agent for managing microbial infections and oxidative stress-related conditions due to its bioactive components.