Plants as Potential Antimycobacterial Agents and their various Screening Methods

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a threat to the human health worldwide. It causes mortality and morbidity in malnutrition and immunodeficient persons. It is an airborne infection which spreads from human to human through coughing and sneezing. The resistance development and the drug related toxicities associated with the current antitubercular treatment often necessitate the researchers to develop a new candidate for the treatment of tuberculosis. The selection of a feasible and reproducible method for the screening of new bioactive compounds in a high throughput method is necessary to find a hit from the list of compounds. Plants are the rich source of bioactive compounds and found their wide application globally for their medicinal properties since ancient times. The change of an era from antibiotics to phytomedicines certainly minimizes the difficulty of drug resistance and drug related toxicities. This review highlights the screening methods for the development of candidates against M. tuberculosis to understand the potential of various plant species reported to be active against various mycobacterial strains.