Brittany Christopherson's Article Review

Mahady, G. (2005). Medicinal Plants for the Prevention and Treatment of Bacterial Infections. Current Pharmaceutical Design, 11(19), 2405-2427. Retrieved from Academic Premier Search database.

Interestingly enough, Mahady’s article entitled “Medicinal Plants for the Prevention and Treatment of Bacterial Infections” was itself a review article. The author used this medium to condense somewhere around a hundred studies of the potential antimicrobial effects of various plant species extracts. The intention of the article was to show that there is a huge problem born from rapidly expanding antibiotic resistance that is directly confronting us these days, but the is hope to be found in the increasing number of studies into the potential use of plant extracts as treatment options for bacterial infections. The first three pages focus on answering the question of ‘why investigate?’ and accomplishes an answer through the use of both sheer statistics and chronological explanation of events leading up the current crisis of resistance. A major point the author makes that is again noted in the conclusion of the article is the decrease in the amount of new pharmaceuticals being developed and thus why a resurgence of natural remedies is paramount. The bulk of the article focuses on condensing numerous in vitro and clinical studies using plant extracts to treat bacterial infections, particularly those that are increasingly resistant to antibiotic remedies. The article winds down with mention of a final concept that the author acknowledges as an area in need of further research. Multidrug resistance (MDR) pumps are still not well understood and still pose a huge hurdle in the search for new antibiotics as these phenomena are a method of antibiotic removal by the bacteria. The author concludes the review by readdressing the issue of little progress in the pharmaceutical sphere and reaffirming the incredible importance of intense further research in the area of medicinal plant extracts as alternatives to antibiotics.

This article is primarily a resource for bringing centuries of remedies and the vast array of recent research into the viability of such remedies in the bacterial infection ring. It accentuates the importance of continuing research and functions as a call to scientists to take up interest in this area as it seems to be a promising avenue of antibiotic alternatives. It serves to provide a sort of checkpoint in current research and as a stepping stone to further research. A source such as this would be helpful in the development of a project such as a website focusing on antibiotic resistance and addressing that issue as this article itself is a transition between simply talking about the problem and identifying one method of treating bacterial infections that may not be so far out of the box after all.

I believe this article will be incredibly helpful as a solid foundation from which to expand from. My project is focusing on alternatives to antibiotics, which is the heart and soul of this article. By no means would it be appropriate to use this article as the sole source for the development of a critical look at what our options are, but with an upward of 120 sources, it is a research paradise from which to go to primary research studies themselves and draw my own conclusions.

This article is fairly recent, 2005, but it is quite possible that research could have increased exponentially after this article and the immense numbers of studies summarized within its pages are hardly a drop in the bucket. The author is fairly critical of the pharmaceutical industry, seeing it as a decreasingly effective avenue due to the sheer lack of new medications being churned out.

The author’s intent is to showcase the importance of further research. The article’s conclusion is riddled with questions and exposed holes the author believes need to be filled. As is seen in both the conclusion, and within the collection of studies themselves, is the lack of clinical studies. There is study after study where cures are found in test tubes. That is as far as they get though. There is a desperate need to progress, to do in vivo studies. The problem of generalization confronts us: what works in a test tube or in a petri dish is not going to for surely have the same effect when placed in the living experiment known as humans.