Abstract
Medicinal plants constitute natural source of antimicrobial drugs that will provide essential compounds to fight against disease. In this study, the antibacterial activity of ethanol extracts of Moringa stenopetala, Thymus serrulatus, and Terminalia brownii were investigated against selected pathogenic Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. In vitro antibacterial activities of the ethanol extracts were tested at a concentration of 50, 25, and 12.5 mg/ml by using agar disc diffusion method and zone of inhibitions were determined. Furthermore, minimum inhibitory concentrations were determined for plants that showed antibacterial activity (>15 mm zone of inhibition). The results indicated that only T. serrulatus and T. brownii exhibited antimicrobial activity against one or more test pathogens. Both extracts of these plants showed strong and dose dependent activity when compared with M. stenopetala which demonstrated no activity. Interestingly, T. serrulatus showed broad spectrum activity against the tested bacteria. Therefore, ethanol extracts of T. serrulatus and T. brownii showed promising antimicrobial activity justifying their usage in traditional medicine. Key words: Antibacterial, Ethiopia, Moringa stenopetala, Terminalia brownii, Thymus serrulatus.
Highlights
Despite tremendous progress in medicine, infections caused by bacteria, fungi, virus and parasites are still major threat to human and animal health
The disk diffusion method for antimicrobial susceptibility testing was initially performed to determine the antibacterial activities of crude ethanol extracts of the leaves of M. stenoptala, T. serrulatus and T. brownii against B. cereus, E. coli o15:H7, Salmonella spp. and S. aureus
70% ethanol extract of M. stenopetala, T. serrulatus and T. brownii were subjected to antimicrobial study against B. cereus, E. coli 015:H7, Salmonella spp. and S. aureus
Summary
Despite tremendous progress in medicine, infections caused by bacteria, fungi, virus and parasites are still major threat to human and animal health. In the last three decades, few antibiotics were produced but clinical efficacy of these antibiotics is being threatened by the emergence of multi drug-resistant pathogens (Khond et al, 2009). Antibacterial pharmaceuticals are not accessible to majority of the communities in developing countries (Cheruiyot et al, 2009). Actions must be taken to reduce these problems, such as controlling the use of antibiotics, understanding the genetic mechanisms of resistance and developing new antibiotics and new therapeutic strategies. Advances in identifying new sources of natural products with antimicrobial activities and expanding antibiotic chemical diversity are providing chemical leads for new drugs.
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