THE EFFECT OF SOME PLANT EXTRACTS• ' ONSOME PATHOGENIC ORGANISMS iN , RELATION TO SOME AVAILABLE ANTIBIOTICS

Abstract

The use of certain plants in herbal medicine is coincidental with the history of civilization. Most of the plants are utilized in a variety of ways. A large number is of economical importance being very common as food plants. Moreover, many members of different families were applied in folk medicine as herbal remedies.

1. Four seeds; Zea maize (com). Triticum vulgaris (wheat), Hordeu m vulgaris (barley). and Trigonella foenum graceum (fenugreek) were used in this investigation. The first three plants belong to the family Graminae, while the latter belongs to the family Leguminosae. These plants are the most popular varieties cultivated in Egypt.

2. Solvent and boiling water extractions of the four seeds were used in this research to study their antimicrobial activities against variuos microorganisms that cause local or generalized diseases among patients of Tabarak children's hospital. The bacterial isolates were identified to the genus level at the Clinical Pathology Department , Faculty of Medicine, AI Azhar University.

These bacterial isolates included: Gram-negative bacteria as Escherichia coli sp., Proteus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Salmonella typhimurium sp., Salmonella paratyphi sp., Shigella sp., and K lebsiella sp.,