Antibacterial activity of the alcoholic extract of berberine against Staphylococcus aureus isolated from burn and wound infections

Abstract

Burns and wounds destroy the physical skin which is the body’s natural barrier to the external environment. As a result the burned area is prone to infection and colonization by microorganisms. The most common pathogenic colonizing bacterium is Staphylococcus aureus. In order to solve the problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, some medic¬inal plants have been used so as to determine their effectiveness against S. aureus. Among these plants, we have herein used the alcoholic extract of berberine. Our results suggest that the alcoholic extract of berberine, at a con¬centration 250 mg/mL, can exert a high inhibitory efficacy against S. aureus.