Antibacterial activity of some wild medicinal plants collected from western Mediterranean coast, Egypt: Natural alternatives for infectious disease treatment

Abstract

Traditional medicine has a key role in health care worldwide. Obtaining scientific information about the efficacy and safety of the wild plants grown in western Mediterranean coast of Egypt is one of our research goals. In this study, 10 wild plants namely Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, Blackiella aellen, Arthrocnemon glaucum, Atriplex halimus, Thymelaea hirsute, Carduus getulus, Nicotiana glauca, Alhagi maurorum, Atractylis carduus and Echinops spinosissimus were collected from El-Hammam, Burg El Arab and Bahig regions located along the Western Mediterranean coast of Egypt. Hexane and methanol extracts of fresh aerial parts of the plants were screened in vitro for antimicrobial activity against 15 Gram positive and negative pathogenic bacteria. Both methanol and hexane plant extracts showed strong antibacterial activity against at least two pathogenic microorganisms tested. However, hexane extracts generally showed lower activity against microorganisms compared to methanol extracts. The microorganisms’ susceptibility to different extracts did not correlate with the susceptibility or resistance to a particular antibiotic. The results of this study thus support the medical usage of the studied plants and suggest that some of these plants possess antimicrobial properties that can be used to cure infectious diseases.

Key words: Egyptian wild plants, antagonism, biological control, phytochemicals, multi-drug resistant.