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Pharmaceutical Biology
2007, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 176–181
Antimicrobial Screening of Some Turkish Medicinal Plants
Mustafa Oskay and Dilek Sarı
Biology Department, Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Celal Bayar University, Manisa, Turkey
Abstract
Ethanol extracts of 19 Turkish medicinal plants, used in
the traditional system of medicine, were investigated for
their antimicrobial activity against 14 pathogenic
bacterial species and a yeast, Candida albicans, using the
agar well diffusion method. Anticandidal activity was
detected in 10 plant extracts. Extracts of Eucalyptus
camuldulensis (leaves), Rosmarinus officinalis (leaves),
Ecballium elaterium (leaves, fruits; 2:1, v=v), Liquidambar
orientalis (leaves), Cornus sanguinea (leaves, flowers,
stems; 2:1:1, v=v=v), Vitis vinifera (leaves, raw fruits,
young branches; 2:1:1, v=v=v), Inula viscosa (leaves),
Hypericum perforatum (leaves, flowers, stems; 2:1:1,
v=v=v), and Punica granatum (leaves, flowers; (2:1, v=v)
showed broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity with inhi-
bition zones ranging from 4 to 34 mm. The most resistant
organisms were Escherichia coli, Candida albicans,
Pseudomonas fluorescens, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6683,
and Enterobacter faecalis ATCC 29212, and the most
susceptible species were Proteus vulgaris ATCC 6997, Sal-
monella typhimurium CCM 5445, Staphylococcus epider-
midis ATCC 12228, and Serratia marcescens CCM 583,
respectively. The minimum inhibitory concentration
(MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC)
were determined for the seven highly active plants that
showed antimicrobial activity against methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 95047 (MRSA), E. coli, and
C. albicans. The MICs of active extracts ranged from 8 to
14.2 mg=mL while the MBCs were 14.2 to 24.4 mg=mL.
Keywords: Antimicrobial, drug resistant, medicinal plants,
MRSA, Turkish.
Introduction
Turkey has an extraordinarily rich flora and a wide
knowledge of its indigenous medicinal plants. Medicinal
Accepted: October 18, 2006.
Address correspondence to: Mustafa Oskay, Biology Department, Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Celal Bayar University, Campus of
Muradiye, 45030 Manisa, Turkey. Tel.: +90 236 2412151-122; Fax: +90 236 2412158; E-mail: mustafa.oskay@bayar.edu.tr
DOI: 10.1080/13880200701213047 # 2007 Informa Healthcare
plants constitute an important component of flora and
are widely distributed in different floristic regions of
Turkey because of its geographic location, climate, and
the presence of nearly 10,000 natural plant species
(Baytop, 1999; Ateş & Erdoğrul, 2003).
Human infections, particularly those involving the skin
and mucosal surface, constitute a serious problem,
especially in tropical and subtropical developing
countries (Falahatı et al., 2005); methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Staphylococcus aureus,
Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans being the most
frequent pathogens. MRSA gained much attention in the
past decade, as it is a major cause of hospital-acquired
infections. The drug-resistant bacteria and the fungal
pathogen have further complicated the treatment of infec-
tious diseases in immunocompromised, AIDS, and cancer
patients. In the current scenario of emergence of multiple
drug resistance to human pathogenic organisms, this has
necessitated a search for new antimicrobial substances
from other sources including plants (Ahmad & Beg, 2001).
It is expected that plant extracts showing target sites
other than those used by antibiotics will be active against
drug-resistant microbial pathogens. The use of medicinal
plants still plays a vital role to cover the basic health
needs in developing countries. In this connection, plants
continue to be a rich source of therapeutic agents. The
active principles of many drugs are found in plants or
are produced as secondary metabolites. The remarkable
contribution of plants to the drug industry was possible
because of the large number of phytochemical and
biological studies all over the world. Herbal remedies
used in folk medicine provide an interesting and still lar-
gely unexplored source for the creation and development
of potentially new drugs for chemotherapy, which might
help overcome the growing problem of resistance and
also the toxicity of the currently available commercial
antibiotics. Therefore, it is of great interest to carry out