A review of some medicinal plants with the potential to defeat antimicrobial resistance: Cases of Benin, Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Cape Verde

Review Article

International Journal of One Health, 8(2): 124-160

https://doi.org/10.14202/IJOH.2022.124-160

Victorien Dougnon¹, Boris Brice Legba¹, Bertin Gbaguidi¹, Eric Agbodjento¹, Alidehou Jerrold Agbankpe¹, Diara Rocha², Irene Ayi³, Simon Azonbakin¹, Aboudoulatif Diallo⁴, Isidore Juste Bonkoungou⁵, Jean Robert Klotoe¹, Clément Agbangla¹, and Guy Alain Alitonou¹

1. Research Unit in Applied Microbiology and Pharmacology of Natural Substances, Polytechnic School of Abomey-Calavi, University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin.
2. Department of Biology, University of Cape Verde, Cape Verde.
3. Department of Parasitology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Ghana.
4. Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Science, University of Lome, Togo.
5. Department of Biochemistry - Microbiology, University of University Joseph KI ZERBO, Burkina-Faso.

Background and Aim: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health problem. In the alternatives being explored for developing new antimicrobials, medicinal plants occupy an important place, particularly in Africa, where they are widely used. This review aims to analyze the potential of medicinal plants from Benin, Togo, Ghana, Burkina-Faso, and Cape Verde in the fight against AMR. A bibliographic search was conducted to explore scientific databases such as PubMed and Google Scholar. During this search, particular attention was given to epidemiological data related to AMR in these countries, medicinal plants traditionally used to treat microbial infections and medicinal plants that have been shown to be active on multidrug-resistant microbial strains. In total, 94 manuscripts were investigated. Epidemiological data showed that the problem of AMR is worsening in each target country. In addition, several medicinal plants have been demonstrated to be effective against microbial strains resistant to conventional antibiotics. A total of 532 medicinal plants were identified according to their ethnomedical uses for the treatment of microbial infections. Scientific evidence was collected on the antimicrobial potential of 91 plants. This study showed the potential of medicinal plants in the fight against AMR. Their documented traditional use, coupled with the evidence of efficacy provided, make them interesting sources for developing new antimicrobials.

Keywords: Africa, antimicrobial, drug resistance, medicinal plants.

How to cite this article: Dougnon V, Legba BB, Gbaguidi B, Agbodjento E, Agbankpe AJ, Rocha D, Ayi I, Azonbakin S, Diallo A, Bonkoungou IJ, Klotoe JR, Agbangla C, and Alitonou GA (2022) A review of some medicinal plants with the potential to defeat antimicrobial resistance: Cases of Benin, Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Cape Verde, Int. J. One Health, 8(2):124–160.

Received: 03-07-2022 Accepted: 14-10-2022 Published online: 25-11-2022

Corresponding author: Victorien Dougnon E-mail: victorien.dougnon@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/IJOH.2022.124-160

Copyright: Dougnon, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.