Medicinal Plants and Phytocompounds: A Potential Source of Novel Antibiofilm Agents - Antibiofilm Agents: From Diagnosis to Treatment and Prevention - page 219

14 days resulted in a 3 log10 unit decrease in the bacterial load on the 5th day after
infection compared to untreated animals. In addition, FGE protected renal tissue
from bacterial adherence and resulted in a milder inflammatory response and
histopathological changes of infected tissues (Harjai et al. 2010 ).
Cady et al. ( 2012 ) demonstrated that S -phenyl- L -cysteine sulfoxide and its
breakdown product, diphenyl disulfide, significantly reduced the amount of biofilm
formation by P. aeruginosa . These organosulfur compounds did not reduce plank-
tonic cell growth and only affected biofilm formation. In a Drosophila -based
infection model, both S -phenyl- L -cysteine sulfoxide and diphenyl disulfide signif-
icantly reduced the P. aeruginosa recovered 18 h postinfection (relative to the
control) and were nonlethal to the fly hosts.
To determine the effects of the crude and petroleum ether fraction of T. ammi on
the oral colonization and cariogenic potential of S. mutans in vivo, a mouse model
was utilized. The caries score was found to be reduced in the treated groups,
reducing the total smooth surface as well as the sulcal surface caries. The percent-
age of total smooth surface caries and sulcal surface caries was 84.83 % and
87.61 % for crude extract and 53.93 % and 73.11 % for the petroleum ether fraction
of T. ammi , respectively (Khan et al. 2012 ).
8 Conclusions
Plants represent a sustainable source of antibiofilm agents which have unique
modes of action and properties. Present screening and evaluation results of medic-
inal plants and phytocompounds are promising. It is expected that sub-MICs of
plant-derived compounds might offer an elegant way to interfere with various steps
involved in biofilm formation. These antibiofilm compounds might also be effec-
tive in enhancing antibacterial drug efficacy through improved penetration. Isola-
tion of active compounds from extracts and exploring the mode of action of
phytocompounds is further needed in order to identify the most ideal broad-
spectrum agents. Many compounds derived from plants or active fractions of
extracts have shown promising activity in vitro. Such compounds are expected to
exhibit activity in in vivo models, e.g., activity of garlic and its derived compounds
have shown encouraging biofilm inhibitory activity in vivo in different animal
models. Other compounds have to be tested in vivo to uncover their therapeutic
potential.
Acknowledgments FMH is grateful to the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New
Delhi, India, for the financial assistance in the form of an INSPIRE fellowship. The authors are
also thankful to Mr. Mohammad Shavez Khan (Research Scholar, AMU, Aligarh) for his kind help
in the preparation of structures of phytocompounds.