Abstract
Background and aims: Infectious diseases are among the most important causes of mortality around the world and according to the WHO report 10.5 million cases of death were happened due to infections. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most important pathogen that its infections are varied from local infections to life threatening infections. With regard to high antibiotic resistance of this agent its control and treatment is a challenge in medicine. The aim of this study was to review the effective medicinal plants against S. aureus with special attention of native plants of Iran.
Methods: A comprehensive literature review was performed on papers that have been published from 2004 till 2016 in data resources such as NCBI, Sciencedirect, Springer, Web of science and as well as local databases such as Irandoc, Islamic science citation (ISC) and magiran with special focus on those that have been reported native medicinal plants in Iran. The selected keywords were Staphylococcus aureus, medicinal plant, natural antibiotic, antibacterial plant and medicinal herbs.
Results: Different studies were found that have reported effective medicinal plants against S. aureus and were able to significantly inhibit bacterial growth. As well as different parts of these plants have been investigated for antibacterial activity and found that considerable differences are present among these parts of plants.
Conclusion: Based on the reported studies, there are different medicinal plants in Iran that can be regarded as effective source for discovery new antibacterial agents against S. aureus and treatment of resistant strains.