A Diagrammatic Mini-Review on the Soil-Human Health-Nexus with a Focus on Soil Microbes

Abstract

ECOGNITION of the links between soil and human health goes back thousands of years, when ancient people recognized the value of soil and its potential for human life. As a dynamic, complex, and open system soil consists of flora and fauna (microbes and others), water, air, and mineral and organic particles. These components of soil may cause negative (diseases, nutrient imbalances) and/or positive (supply of antibiotics, bioactives, secondary metabolites, or essential nutrients) impacts on human health. Soil microbes are a crucial component of the soil system that can cause human diseases or be used in the production of antibiotics and other drugs. There is still great need to study the soil microbial community, as new soil microbes are regularly discovered along with new compounds that are beneficial to human health, such as drugs, bioactives, and secondary metabolites. This mini-review discuses the potential of soil microbes, including their positive and negative influences within the soil-human health nexus. This work is unique in that it mainly depends on diagrammatic presentations, which can explain the target meaning in a very simple manner.