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Nepalese Pteridophytes Used as Antimicrobials: Challenges and Opportunities

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Promising Antimicrobials from Natural Products

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Abstract

Pteridophytes constitute the primitive vascular plant group, which are found scattered all over the world. There are 580 taxa of Nepalese pteridophytes, which are most diverse and adapted in different climatic zones forming an attractive component of the vegetation showing different ecological habits such as epiphytic, lithophytic, terrestrial, tree ferns, hanging club mosses, climbers, and hydrophytic. Human beings have been using pteridophytes because of their several useful properties, including food and medicine. Some important bioactive compounds have been identified from the Nepalese pteridophytes and the chemical compounds isolated have shown antimicrobial properties, which has revealed that pteridophytes play a potential role in Nepalese pharmacopoeia and drug discovery. Finally, the challenges and opportunities of pteridophyte research are discussed.

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Abbreviations

ATCC:

American Type Culture Collection;

CITES:

International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

IUCN:

The International Union for Conservation of Nature

MBC:

Minimum Bactericidal Concentration

mg:

Milligram

MIC:

Minimum Inhibitory Concentration

mL:

Milliliter

mm:

Millimeter

MRSA:

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

MTCC:

Microbial Type Culture Collection

μg:

Microgram

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Acknowledgments

We are thankful to Mr. Dhanraj Kandal, Scientific Officer at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories, Department of Plant Resources, Godawari, Lalitpur, for providing us the photographs of ferns. The first author thanks Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, Khumaltar, Lalitpur, for various support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, Lalitpur, Nepal

    Shandesh Bhattarai

  2. Ethnobotanical Society of Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Ripu M. Kunwar

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  1. Shandesh Bhattarai
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  2. Ripu M. Kunwar
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Department of Biotechnology, Amravati, Maharashtra, India

    Mahendra Rai

  2. University of Zagreb, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Institute for Microbiology, Zagreb, Croatia

    Ivan Kosalec

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Bhattarai, S., Kunwar, R.M. (2022). Nepalese Pteridophytes Used as Antimicrobials: Challenges and Opportunities. In: Rai, M., Kosalec, I. (eds) Promising Antimicrobials from Natural Products. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83504-0_2

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