Abstract

Due to quick growth of resistance and high cost of new generation antibiotics, lots of efforts were made to discover new antimicrobial agents from various sources. So, current study was assessed antibacterial activity of ethanol, methanol, acetone, diethyl ether and hexane leave extracts of Rumex nervosus and Clematis simensis by used paper disc diffusion and broth dilution procedures against six human pathogenic bacterial strains. The pathogenic bacteria were Shigella dysenteriae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella Typhi and Klebsiella pneumoniae were susceptible to ethanol, methanol and acetone extracts of the leaves of R. nervosus followed by C. simensis, but hexane extract didn’t displayed any activity. The extreme inhibition zone of 16.3±0.57 mm was detected against E. coli by ethanol extract of R. nervosus and MIC of 3.125 mg/ml against E. coli and S. dysenteriae by methanol extract. The methanol extract of C. simensis formed a marked inhibition of 13.1±0.37 mm against E. coli and ethanol extract of C. simensis displayed activity against S. dysenteriae 14.4±0.45 mm and MIC of 6.25 mg/ml against S. Typhi. Four dissimilar antibiotics like ciprofloxin, tetracyclin, kanamycin and chloramphenicol were used as standard for tested antibacterial activity against six different human pathogens. The activities were recognized the presence of some secondary metabolites existed in the tested floras which have related with antibacterial activities.

Key words: Antibacterial activity, Clematis simensis, Human pathogens, Rumex nervosus.