Rethinking Ayurvedic antibacterials: a mechanistic case for multi-target phytochemicals as adjuvants against antimicrobial resistance
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is now among the foremost threats to global health, and the pipeline of new antibiotics has not kept pace with it. A structural driver of resistance is often overlooked: the dominant “single molecule–single target” paradigm of antibiotic design imposes a well-defined selective pressure that bacteria can escape through a single mutation or acquired gene. This review reframes the antibacterial potential of Ayurvedic herbs around that problem. Rather than cataloguing herbs as candidate “natural antibiotics,” we argue that their value lies in polypharmacology—the simultaneous action of structurally diverse secondary metabolites (flavonoids, tannins, saponins, phenolic acids and terpenoids) on multiple conserved bacterial targets, a combination against which stepwise resistance is evolutionarily improbable. We synthesise the mechanistic evidence for representative Ayurvedic plants including Calotropis procera , Azadirachta indica , Ocimum sanctum , the Acacia genus and Asparagus racemosus , organising it by bacterial target rather than by species: cell-wall biosynthesis, membrane integrity, and essential enzymes such as DNA gyrase and β-lactamase. We then examine two roles in which multi-target phytochemicals address failures of conventional therapy: the disruption of biofilms and quorum sensing, and synergy with existing antibiotics through efflux inhibition, β-lactamase suppression and extracellular-matrix degradation. Finally, we assess the translational barriers: reproducibility, heavy-metal contamination and the scarcity of clinical trials that currently confine most of this evidence to in vitro studies. We conclude that the most credible near-term contribution of Ayurvedic pharmacology to the AMR crisis is not as a replacement for antibiotics but as a source of multi-target adjuvants that restore and extend their efficacy.
Source: Frontiers in Pharmacology
Institution: SASTRA University
Language: English
Subfield: Food Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7223188058