Antibacterial activities of some plant extracts used in folk medicine

The antibacterial activities of ethyl acetate, methanol, chloroform, and acetone extracts of four plant species were studied. The dried extracts of the whole plant of Artemisia absinthium (Compositae/Asteraceae) and Urtica dioica (Urticaceae), flowering plants of Fumaria officinalis (Papaveraceae/Fumariaceae) and the leaves of Rosmarinus officinalis (Labiatae/Lamiaceae) were tested in vitro against 12 bacterial species and strains by the agar diffusion method. Bacillus brevis FMC3, Bacillus megaterium DSM32, Bacillus subtilis IMG22, Bacillus subtilis var. niger ATCC 10, Micrococcus luteus LA 2971, Mycobacterium smegmatus RUT, Escherichia coli DM, Listeria monocytogenes SCOTT A, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Streptococcus thermophilus, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Yersinia enterocolitica O:3 P 41797 were used in this investigation. The results indicated that neither the whole plant extracts of Urtica dioica nor Fumaria officinalis showed antibacterial activity against the test micro-organisms. All the extracts of the leaves of Rosmarinus officinalis showed various inhibitory effects (7-16 mm/20 mul inhibition zone), except the acetone extract against Yersinia enterocolitica. The whole plant ethyl acetate and chloroform extracts of Artemisia absinthium inhibited some of the test micro-organisms (8-16 mm/20 mul inhibition zone).