Plants have been an integral part of the ancient culture of India, China and
Egypt as a medicine, and their importance even dates back to the Neanderthal period.
Historically, a majority of new drug is generated from compounds derived from natural
products and secondary metabolites. Natural products show the large structural
diversity and various modern techniques for structure elucidation, separation,
combinatorial synthesis and screening have led to the revitalization of plant products as
the sources of new drugs. Currently, there is a substantial decline in new drug
approvals and in the impending loss of patent protection for important medicines.
Considering this, the present review mainly focused on all types of the main groups of
compounds classified as Natural products, semi-synthetic NPs and NP-derived
compounds that have been registered, undergoing registration or in clinical
development for antibacterial and antifungal activity. The review mainly enlights the
need for new antibacterial and antifungal drugs along with a contribution of natural
products in the discovery of new antibacterial and antifungal drugs. The review briefly
discuss all the molecules obtained from natural sources which are in preclinical and
clinical development.
Keywords: Antibacterials, Antifungals, Clinical development, Natural Source.
