According to scientists, such drugs cause much fewer side effects than synthetic drugs.
Phytochemists of the Tomsk State University have launched research on isolating phytoantibiotics from plants growing in Siberia. These can be used as sources of antimicrobial agents, they assume. This was reported by the press service of TSU.
“The peculiarity of such drugs is that they cause much less harmful side effects than synthesized medications. It is much more difficult for pathogens to develop resistance to the action of complex phyto medications, rather than to chemical drugs,” - the experts point out.
According to them, studies have proved that herbal preparations can be more efficient. For example, high antifungal activity was found in the plants of Licnis Chalcedony. According to the test results, the activity of its extract is up to 30 times higher than that in the antifungal antibiotics used in medicine today.
"In the framework of the new project, scientists study the chemical composition of plants from the genus of campion, which includes about 700 species. With a high degree of probability, those plants may have powerful antimicrobial effect. Phytochemists extract bioactive complexes from raw campion matter, divide them into active substances and study their biological activities jointly with pharmacologists,”- the researchers explain.
The university emphasizes that in many countries the popularity of plant-based drugs has been increasing from year to year. Their share is close to 10 percent in the USA and Europe and 25 percent in India, whereas in China, where medicines of natural origin are mainly used, they make nearly 80 percent of the therapeutic arsenal.