Antibacterial activity of fruit, leaves extracts of Artemisia Persica Boiss ,Rhus Coriaria, Ephedra Intermedia and Daphne Mucronata Royle of Lorestan

Introduction: There is an increasing concern regarding the emergence of highly antibiotic resistant bacteria and therefore interests for the development of new antibiotics are increasing worldwide. Plant extracts are popular for having the least side effects and being natural .We have investigated antibacterial activity of extracts from four Lorestan medicinal plants including Artemisia Persica Boiss, Rhus Coriaria, Ephedra Intermedia and Daphne Mucronata Royle. Materials and Methods: Fruit, bark or leaves were collected from the Zagros highlands around Khorramabad city, soaked in hexan for 48 hours then the solvent was separated and evaporated under reduced pressure in order to remove the plant waxes. Then the concentrated oils were shaken with ethanol and were froze at -10 degrees. After evaporation of ethanol, absolute extract was obtained. The extract was resuspended in sterile sailin containing %4 ethanol and used in the broth micro dilution assay technique to determine the Minimum Inhibitory (MIC) and Bactericidal concentration (MBC).The control was similarly contained saline with %4 ethanol. Antibacterial effects were examined on six standard (ATCC) gram negative and positive bacteria. Blank disks were impregnated with extract for disk diffusion assay on the Muller Hinton Agar plate. The experiments were carried out three times and mean of concentrations was calculated. Findings: Rhus Coriaria extracts show a strong antibacterial activity on the most bacteria examined. Suprisingly the MIC= 5µg/ml and MBC = 78µg/ml for bacillus cerus and MIC=MBC =30µg/ml for Enterococci were observed which are particularly interesting and significant. Antibacterial activities were also observed for other bacteria but the effect on gram positive was more evident. Daphne Mucronata and Artemisia Persica also showed some antibacterial activities on some of the examined bacteria including B. cerus and Staph aureous and E. coli. Ephedra Intermedia had very little effect on the examined bacteria at the tested concentration. Conclusion: Rhus Coriaria or Lorian sumac has strong antibacterial activities on gram positive bacteria particularly on the entrococci. Animal and clinical trial of this extract may be useful for possible use of Rhus Coriaria against antibiotic resistant Enterococci infections.