Abstract

The development of new antimicrobial agents against multidrug resistant pathogens for the treatment of skin infections is of increasing interest. Therefore, the aqueous and ethanolic extracts from different parts of five medicinal plants used locally in folk medicine were evaluated for antimicrobial activity against the most frequent skin pathogens. It was found that most plant extracts studied had antibacterial and antifungal activities. The antibacterial activities with the best minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values were significantly produced by the aqueous extracts of Eminium spiculatum stems and Lupinus varius,seeds against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and by the ethanolic extracts of Mandragora autumnalis, fruits against Escherichia coli, and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA). Whereas, the highest significant antifungal activity with the best MIC value was produced by aqueous extracts of L. varius seeds against Candida albicans. However, leaf extracts of the tested plants were appeared to produce the least antimicrobial activity. It was concluded that the antimicrobial activity is associated with the used part of plant in addition to the type of solvent used for extraction. The antimicrobial effects of some plant extracts, in particular aqueous seed extracts of L. varius and ethanolic fruit extracts of M. autumnalis, may be used for the topical treatment of skin infections.

Key words: Antimicrobial activity, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, plant part, skin pathogens.