Antimicrobial activity of Ficus sycomorus L. (Moraceae) leaf and stem-bark extracts against multidrug resistant human pathogens

Abstract

Summary The present work was conducted to investigate antibacterial activity of methanol and acetone in leaf (LE) and stem-bark (SBE) of Ficus sycomorus L. crude extracts against sensitive and resistant species of Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumannii pathogens. Antimicrobial activity expressed by disc-diffusion method (zone of inhibitions - ZIs), minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) were measured as reported for many investigations. Similar study with 6 commercial antibiotics as a reference drug was undertaken. Based upon the estimated ZIs, MIC and MBC values, acetone LE exhibited higher antimicrobial activity than that of methanol one. Otherwise, standard antibiotics have lower effectiveness (ZIs, MICs and MBC) on all tested bacteria as compared to the SBE and LE. The highest antibacterial activity was recorded in sensitive A. baumannii isolate with MICs 2.5, 4.9 mg/ml and MBC 3.8, 9.7 mg/ml for acetone LE and SBE, respectively. Our data indicated that the lowest antibiotics antibacterial activity was recorded for resistant A. baumannii pathogen. It was lower than those of the both plant fractions extracts.