<p>Agriculture today faces unprecedented challenges, with climate change intensifying pest and disease pressures, threatening global food security. Conventional management strategies have heavily relied on synthetic pesticides, although effective in increasing crop productivity but have raised serious concerns due to their long-term environmental impacts, non-target toxicity and growing negative perception among consumers. This has stimulated the research for safer, eco-friendly, and sustainable alternatives. In this context, plant-derived phytochemicals have gained attention as promising candidates for the development of biocontrol agents against phytopathogens. They also have evolved sophisticated defense strategies against both biotic and abiotic stresses, largely mediated by secondary metabolites such as alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids and phenolics. These compounds function in constitutive defenses also induced responses, thereby enabling plants to mount effective protection against invading pathogens and herbivores. Natural products from medicinal plants, either as pure compounds or standardized extracts, represent an invaluable source of structurally diverse metabolites with immense potential for novel therapeutic and biocontrol applications. For centuries, phytochemicals have been integral to healthcare systems worldwide, serving as medicines to treat a&#xa0;wide spectrum of diseases. Their unique structural diversity confers multiple antimicrobial modes of action, including disruption of cell membranes, inhibition of virulence enzymes, suppression of quorum sensing (QS) and interference with biofilm formation. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the structural classes of plant-derived compounds and critically evaluates their applications as biocontrol agents against bacterial phytopathogens. By bridging phytochemical diversity with their practical relevance in crop protection, this review highlights their potential integration into sustainable resilience and global food security.</p>