Antibacterial activity of selected Egyptian ethnomedicinal plants

Aims: Medicinal plants have recently received the attention of the antimicrobial activity of plants and their metabolites due to the challenge of growing incidences of drug-resistant pathogens. The aims of this study were to determine the antibacterial activities of plant extracts used as ethnomedicinal in Egypt. Methodology and Results: Investigations were carried out to assess the antibacterial efficiency of 11 plant extracts used as ethnopharmacological among Egyptian native people against infectious diseases. Crude methanol, ethanol, chloroform, hexane, acetone and aqueous extract of plants were tested for antibacterial activity in vitro against ten bacterial isolates using the disc diffusion method test. Discs were impregnated with 2 mg/mL of different solvent extracts. Among all the crude extracts, the methanol extract showed the highest activity than other extracts. P. harmala and S. officinalis exhibited highest antibacterial activity against gram positive and negative bacteria while the remaining plants extracts showed less activity. All the plant extracts showed no significant effect against the Bordetella bronchisepta ATCC 4617 except the extracts of M. fragrans and L. sativum. E. coli is the most sensitive microorganism tested, with the lowest MIC value (0.5 mg/mL) in the presence of the plant extract of P. harmala and S. officinalis. Conclusion, significance and impact of study: Results obtained herein, may suggest that the ethnomedicinal Egyptian plants possess antimicrobial activity and therefore, they can be used in biotechnological fields as natural preservative ingredients in food and/or pharmaceutical industry.