Acne vulgaris and antimicrobial resistance: A review

Background:Acne is a chronic inflammatory disease of skin follicle on the face, which affects almost 85% youngsters and adolescents. The most common causative agent is Propionibacterium species. The evaluation of antimicrobial activity of turmeric and neem, two Indian herbs in facial cosmetics may provide a better treatment option for acne.Objective:The review was to evaluate the microbiological characterization of Propionibacteria isolates from acne vulgaris cases and to identify the antimicrobial action against common antibiotics in use and different herbal extracts.Method:A regimented search in the online databases such as PubMed, EMBASE, Google scholar, scopus and so on was done to identify relevant studies according to search strategies. Other search engines were also used, but could not extract relevant articles or studies form those electronic data bases. From the electronic search, 125 articles were identified, after title and abstract review, 96 articles were retained as eligible. A full-text evaluation resulted in 23 studies to be included for review.Conclusion:The results suggests that Propionibacterium acnes is the main causative agent for pustular acne vulgaris and metronidazole was expectedly sensitive to P. acnes, whereas erythromycin and Clindamycin is emerging resistance.