Results: Out of a total of 1970 specimens, 1094 (55.5 %) were positive by culture. A total of 1462 strains were isolated: 753 Gram positive (Gram+), 661 Gram negative (Gram-) and 48 anaerobic bacteria. The number of specimens yielding one, two or more different strains was 788, 244 and 62, respectively. Gram + bacteria, in 44.7 % of positive samples were a single isolate. The most commonly isol...

A wide range of medicinal plant parts that possess varied medicinal properties are used for extracts as raw drugs. In this study, the ethanolic extract obtained from aerial parts of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) seedlings was evaluated in vitro to examine their antimicrobial activity against four Gram-negative and three Gram-positive bacteria and two fungi. Aerial parts of one-month-old see...

Five techniques for Gram staining bacteria in paraffin sections were compared on serial sections of pulmonary tissues from eight bacteriological necropsies. Brown and Hopp's method was the most satisfactory for distinguishing Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. However, this method cannot be recommended as the preparations were frequently overstained, and the Gram-negative bacteria were s...

Rosa damascena petals were extracted by water, hexane and ethanol. The latter was further fractionated with chloroform, ethyl acetate and butanol. Rose oil and different petal extracts were evaluated against three fungi and eleven Gram-positive, Gram-negative and acid-fast bacteria. Rose oil and all extracts exerted broad spectrum antimicrobial activities against the tested organisms. The desce...

Naphthyridones that were recently described as a class of translation inhibitors in gram-positive bacteria mediate their mode of action via GyrA in Haemophilus influenzae and Escherichia coli. These are the first examples of compounds in which modes of action in different bacterial pathogens are mediated through widely different targets.

Gram-negative bacteria cause infections that are difficult to treat due to the emergence of multidrug resistance. This review summarizes the current status of the studies investigating the capacity of essential oils and their components to modulate antibiotic activity against Gram-negative bacteria. Synergistic interactions are particularly discussed with reference to possible mechanisms by whi...