Abstract
Antibiotic overuse has resulted in a high prevalence of resistant bacterial strain infections and increased side effects. The plant Sidr was chosen for this study because it has a long history as a traditional remedy to treat various human diseases including infections. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the antibacterial efficacy of ethanol extracts of Sidr leaves against commonly encountered multidrug-resistant pathogenic bacteria. Susceptibility of seven multi-drug resistant (MDR) clinical bacterial isolates; Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella sonnei, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) as a reference strain were evaluated to ethanol extracts of Sidr leaves using agar (well and disk) diffusion assays and micro broth dilutions assay. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC), zone of inhibition (ZI), and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) were calculated. The Ethanolic extract of Sidr leaves demonstrated antibacterial activity against all the tested bacteria at all concentrations (10, 20, and 30 mg /ml) in both agar well diffusion assay and disk diffusion assay. The extract showed the highest antibacterial activity (24 +/- 0.57 mm against Staphylococcus aureus while the lowest activity (8.5 +/- 0.5) was observed against Pseudomonas aeruginosa at 30mg/ml concentrations. The MIC and MBC of the extract were recorded 1 mg/mL and 2mg/ml for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Staphylococcus aureus respectively. The extract of Sidr leaves inhibited all of the bacteria tested. Furthermore, raising the concentration of Sidr increased the antimicrobial activity. Further study is needed to identify active ingredients responsible for antibacterial potential in the extract.