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Pakiso Moses Makhoahle^*✉

1. Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Central University of Technology-Free State, South Africa.

Abstract

The use of medicinal plants has increased tremendously and that has led to the scientific interest for testing this plant for toxicity and antimicrobial activity. The manuscript used a comprehensive literature search from databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect to identify relevant studies published within the last five years (2018-2023) and selectively those beyond that provide the necessary background to the article.  The literature analysis found a huge scientific progress made and a lot of plants have been tested for safe use and antimicrobial resistance using the different microorganisms. Nonetheless, the article also highlights the possible hormonal effect or microbiota imbalance which could be attributed to these medical plants being used without proper guidance among our population. Age wise on patients, any prolonged use of these medicinal plants may have devastating effects as such this article advocates for a thorough understanding of the normal flora when communities are treated at home by traditional healers‎.

Keywords: Normal flora, Human microbiome, Medicinal plants, Antibiotics impact on microbiome, Toxicity of medicinal plants

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