In Vitro Antibacterial investigation and Synergistic Effect of Ficus carica and Olea europaea Aqueous Extracts

Abstract

Plants are potential origin of antimicrobial drugs in different countries. They contain a broad range of phytochemicals that possess antimicrobial action against various mirco-organisms. The popularity of diseases caused by bacteria world-wide is a great public health issue and the emergence of resisting strains of bacteria to anti-bacterials lead to many studies looking for new anti-bacterials to fight the diseases and resistance to antibiotic. In this study, aqueous leaf extract of olive (Olea europea) and fig (Ficus carica) were investigated for their antibacterial activities against three bacterial strains Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonos aeruginosa. Muller-Hinton agar and well diffusion method used for assessment of inhibitory activity. The phytochemical identification of some active compounds performed by chemical methods. The results were positive for all the tested phytochemicals (alkaloids, tannins, saponin, glycosides, flavonoids, phenolic compounds and coumarine) for figs and olive aqueous extracts, while negative result for oleurupein in figs extract. Both extracts exhibited strong activity against the bacterial strains. Significant results shown for the combination of both water concentrates of figs and olives. The use of these extracts together is highly recommended to induce synergism and beneficial in developing novel antibiotics from natural, inexpensive sources to overcome bacterial resistance.