Novel Antibacterial Agents from Traditional Medicinal Plants and Marine Sponges

Call for Papers

In the past 30 years the world has witnessed an erosion of the gains made between the 1940s and 1970s in the fight against microbial infections. Reduced susceptibility to antimicrobials and the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria constitute a major setback in the war against infectious diseases. One way to cope with resistance to antimicrobials is by using new compounds which are not based on the existing synthetic antimicrobial agents and which utilize novel pathways that are not susceptible to cross-resistance with the existing ones.

We are now at a crucial stage where it is essential to come up with new antibacterial agents targeting particularly Gram negative and MDR bacterial infections. Medicinal plants and marine sponges have a great potential to yield new compounds with good antibacterial activity because of their unmatched chemical diversity. Medicinal plants are a rich source of antimicrobial compounds such as terpenoids, phenolics, glucosides, saponins, tannins, and alkaloids. On the other hand, recent literatures suggest that marine sponges are an emerging potential reservoir for a diversity of new chemical structures that may have novel mechanisms of antibacterial activities.

For this special issue, we invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles that will provide evidence on the basis of traditional knowledge of the isolation and characterization of antibacterial compounds from medicinal plants used in traditional medicine. We are particularly interested in articles related to the pharmacological potential of medicinal plants, marine sponges, and derived products with antibacterial activity. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Antibacterial activity of crude extracts from medicinal plants and marine sponges
• Antibacterial terpenoids from medicinal plants and marine sponges
• Antibacterial phenolics from medicinal plants and marine sponges
• Antibacterial alkaloids from medicinal plants and marine sponges
• Other compounds from medicinal plants and marine sponges as antimicrobials

Please note that mere antibacterial activity is not sufficient; the depth of the research should be up to minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) level.

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable:

Lead Guest Editor

• Mainen J. Moshi, Department of Biological and Preclinical Studies, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Guest Editors

• Thomas Efferth, Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Mainz, Staudinger Weg 5, 55128 Mainz, Germany
• Victor Kuete, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Dschang, P.O. Box 67, Dschang, Cameroon
• Sumitra Chanda, Phytochemical, Pharmacological and Microbiological Laboratory, Department of Biosciences, Saurashtra University, Rajkot 360 005, Gujarat, India
• Leonard E. G. Mboera, National Institute for Medical Research, P.O. Box 9653, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania