Anti- Escherichia coli Activity of Herbal Medicines: A Systematic Literature Review

Context: Infectious diseases are the cause of death worldwide. As antibiotic resistance is rising, researchers are looking for new therapies. The Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli, causes acquired hospital infections and results in intestinal infections and many infections out of the intestine, like urinary tract infections (UTI), cholecystitis, wound infections, meningitis, septicemia, pulmonary infections, etc. Plants are a good source of bioactive compounds; hence, they can be effective in treating several illnesses. The purpose of this research was to peruse the antibacterial activity of various herbal extracts on E. coli. Evidence Acquisition: This research was obtained from various articles published from 2000 to 2017 from the PubMed, ScienceDirect, Springer, Islamic Science Citation, and Magiran databases. The keywords used were E. coli, herbs, natural antibiotics, and antimicrobial activity. Results: The results showed that the ethanolic extracts of medicinal plants showed better inhibitory function against E. coli than other solvents. Conclusions: The obtained results showed that medicinal herbs can be considered as the main medicinal agents capable of affecting infections caused by E. coli.