Abstract
Rumex nervosus
, common weed plant in Sarawat Mountains, Saudi Arabia, belongs to family Polygonaceae and usually used as traditional herbal medicines. In the current study,
R. nervosus
plants dissected into roots, stems, leaves, and flowers that collected from seven locations in Aseer region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The antimicrobial activity of methanol and
n
-hexane extracts was investigated against three pathogenic bacterial strains and one pathogenic fungus by using agar well-diffusion method. The phytochemicals and vitamins content present in the methanol extracts was investigated by using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results revealed that all extracts showed significant activity against tested microbes. Methanol extracts demonstrated the highest degree of antimicrobial inhibition activity as compared with
n
-hexane extracts. The root extracts exhibited the highest inhibitory activity against the tested microbes. The GC–MS and HPLC indicated the presence of numerous phytochemicals in the different parts of
R. nervosus
as well as a set of vitamins including vitamins
B
1
,
B
2
,
B
12
, and folic acid. In conclusion, the present study showed that methanol and
n
-hexane extracts of all parts of
R. nervosus
could be used as promising alternative drugs to treat bacterial and
Candida
spp. infections.