Anti bacterial activity of Nigella sativa against clinical isolates of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

BACKGROUND Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) continues to be one of the commonest pathogens encountered in clinical as well as laboratory practice. It has become a major health problem worldwide. Newer antimicrobials/agents are urgently needed to combat this problem MRSA resistance to various anti-staphylococcal agents. In the back-drop of this difficult situation Nigella sativa commonly known as black seed (ethanolic extract) was aimed at to evaluate if it had any anti-staphylococcal activity. METHODS The extract was prepared by reflux extraction method. Disc diffusion and in agar dilution methods were performed to assess the antibacterial activity. Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 was used as the standard reference strain. RESULTS All tested strains of MRSA were sensitive to N. sativa extract at a concentration of 4 mg/disc while the extract had an MIC range of 0.2-0.5 mg/ml. CONCLUSION The results indicated that N. sativa has inhibitory effect on MRSA. This finding warrants necessity of further investigation of this product of folk medicine.