Antimicrobial Activities of Natural Cinnamic Acid and Synthetic Derivatives: Review

Diseases caused by microbes are suspected to have become a global health threat. The emergence of drug-resistant microbial strains made treating diseases caused by microbes difficult. Cinnamic acid is an organic compound that has various pharmacological activities, one of which is antimicrobial. Cinnamic acid is abundant in nature in the free form, although only in small amounts. Isolation of natural cinnamic acid and its derivatives, as well as synthetic modification of cinnamic acid into derivative compounds has become an important concern and attracts the attention of researchers to develop new antimicrobial discoveries that are more active. This paper aims to examine the presence of cinnamic acid and its derivatives in plants and the modification of cinnamic acid into derivatives that have antimicrobial activity. The results of the review studied were cinnamic acid and its derivatives found in various plants with different isolation processes. Compounds resulting from the modification of cinnamic acid into cinnamic acid derivatives have better activity than the cinnamic acid.