A major area of basic research and innovation within the Pharmax alliance over the past ten years has been the evaluation of plant antimicrobials as therapeutically useful compounds. Indeed, the research from the Pharmax alliance has been foremost in this area and most of the work has been published.

Throughout this development period, the selection of the antimicrobials for potential usage has been based upon the following criteria:

	Efficacy and spectrum of activity
	Safety in use
	No evidence of microbial resistance
	Minimal effect on intestinal flora when taken orally

The Need for Plant Antimicrobials – the End of the Antibiotic Era?
Prior to the development of antibiotics, plant antimicrobials were used for thousands of years and by numerous different civilizations as the first choice ‘anti-infectives’. Indeed, as recently as the First World War, the Russian army used garlic as their primary defense against general infection and also as a poultice for treating all wounds incurred in battle.

From the 1930’s, the antibiotic era became established and, up until the 1960’s, it was believed that their use would eventually lead to an eradication of bacterial mediated infectious diseases in humans. Unfortunately, the emergence of resistance in the late 1960’s dashed these hopes and, since that time, resistance to antibiotics has progressed at such a pace that now many common pathogens are no longer susceptible to most of the antibiotic types available. As such, the end of the ‘antibiotic era’ as a universal panacea is likely to be confronted within the next 25 years.

It is for this reason that there is a renewed interest in plant antimicrobials and this interest is gathering strength as it becomes apparent how useful these compounds are likely to be in human healthcare.

The Pharmax Development Pathway
In screening for effective antimicrobials, scientists from the Pharmax alliance investigated the traditional uses of plants for indications of activity as ‘anti-infectives’. This resulted in over 100 potentially active antimicrobial substances being evaluated. The testing was carried out using the same methodology as used in pharmaceutical screening for antibiotics and consists of two main stages:

	Agar plate screening for broad spectrum activity (non quantitative)
	Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) determination (quantitative)
From the results of many such screens, the following four primary plant antimicrobials were selected and subjected to extensive further research:
	Allicin
	Cinnamaldehydes
	Berberine
	Oregano oil

This research ultimately led to the development of the efficacious, safe, Pharmax range of plant antimicrobials detailed in this section. Uniquely, all of these products are designed for use alongside Pharmax’s HLC range of probiotics, as the antimicrobials being used have been selected on the basis of having minimal effects against probiotic bacteria. The use of this new and remarkable combination of probiotics and plant antimicrobials should now form the cornerstone of all dysbiosis therapy.