Application of Medicinal Plants to Overcome Antibiotic Resistance in Some Selected Multi-Drug Resistant Clinical Isolates

Antibiotic resistance among bacteria is becoming a major problem in the treatment of many infections. Hence, there is need to find an alternative way by using medicinal plants to overcome the antibiotic resistance and source of novel drug for the treatment of these bacterial diseases. This work aimed at evaluating the possibility of applying hexane extracts of Allium sativum bulbs, Calotropis procera leaves, Acacia nilotica pods, and Mitracarpus scaber whole parts to overcome the antibiotic resistance in some selected clinically isolated bacterial strains (Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsilla pneumoniae and Streptococcus pneumoniae). The efficacy of the hexane extracts was tested by using Agar well diffusion assay method and zones of growth inhibition were measured in millimeter (mm). The results indicated that, all the plants extracts exhibited antibacterial activity against one or more tested pathogens. The hexane extract of A. nilotica showed stronger and broad spectrum activity against the tested isolates as compared to the other extracts that demonstrated moderate activity. Noticeably, no antibacterial activity was found in the hexane extract of C. procera against the tested bacteria except on Klebsilla pneumoniae at concentration of 100mg/ml. Therefore, this study ascertained the value of the medicinal plants to be used as alternatives in the treatment of bacterial infections so as to overcome completely or minimize the resistance on the synthetic or commercial antibiotic drugs.