Abstract

Control of Staphylococcal infections is difficult, especially ecreasing the incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) among hospitalized patients. Meanwhile, medicinal plants have many traditional claims including the treatment of ailments of infectious origin. Four Jordanian medicinal plants, Salvia libanotica, Rosmarinus officinalis, Capparis spinosa, and Achillea fragrantissima used by traditional medical practitioners were investigated for in vitro anti-MRSA activity. The objective of the study was to determine the presence of anti-MRSA activity in the crude extracts of some of the commonly used medicinal plants in Jordan; S. libanotica, R. officinalis, C. spinosa, and A. fragrantissima. Fresh plant materials were collected from the local market and from the Hashemite University Herbarium. Methanol extracts of the pulverized plants’ leaves were obtained by maceration. Bacterial culture used was a strain of MRSA isolated from a Jordanian hospital, identified by biochemical and coagulase tests and examined for antibiotic susceptibility patterns by disc diffusion method. Staphylococcus aureus ATCC (25923) was used as a standard strain. Susceptibility testing of the plant extracts was performed by the agar diffusion method. Minimum inhibitory concentration was determined only for S. libanotica and R. officinalis. Methanol extracts of S. libanotica and R. officinaliswere affective against MRSA. However, C. spinosa, and A. fragrantissima were ineffective in MRSA eradication. This finding forms a basis for further studies on screening of local medicinal plant extracts for antibacterial properties and may help in control of MRSA infections especially in case of chemotherapy failure.

Key words: Salvia libanotica, Rosmarinus officinalis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Abbreviation

TSB, Trypticase soy broth; MIC, minimum Inhibitory Concentration;MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.