Abstract
The antimicrobial resistance, food poisoning and nosocomial bacterial infections considered a global health burden contributing to high death and morbidity rate among hospitalized patients. Furthermore, cancer treatment is challenging owing to the severe side effects of chemotherapy. Against this background, there is a need for the formulation of novel antibacterial and carcino preventive agents. The T. vulgaris hexanic extract showed the highest suppressive effect against Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and Enterococcus faecalis with minimum inhibitory concentrations of 0.25 mg/disk while Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains were less susceptible recording 0.50 mg/disk. In contrast, the ethyl acetate extract of T. vulgaris revealed a superior antitumor potency against MCF7 breast cancer cell line with IC50 of 53.2 µg/mL compared to the other organic solvent extracts. The thyme extracts could be applied as potential anticarcinogenic and antibacterial agents against bacterial pathogens causing nosocomial and food poisoning infections.
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•Bioactivity of Thymus vulgaris extracts against some nosocomial and food poisoning bacterial strains was evaluated.•The thyme hexanic extract exhibited the highest antibacterial activity against the tested bacterial pathogens.•The antiproliferative assay showed that thyme ethyl acetate extract was the most effective one against the transformed cell line.•The thyme extracts could be utilized as promising carcinopreventive and antimicrobial agents.