The In vitro Study of Antimicrobial Effect of Teucrium polium Extract on Infectious Microorganisms

Introduction & Teucrium polium belonging to Lamiaceae family has been widely used in traditional medicine for treatment of diseases. Regarding the existence of the active biological compounds in this plant، it seems that this plant has considerable antimicrobial ef-fects. The aim of this study is to investigate the antimicrobial effect of different concentra-tions of the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Teucrium polium (different concentrations) on Escherichia coli PTCC 1330، Staphylococcus aureus PTCC 1337، Staphylococcus epider-midis PTCC 1435، Streptococcus pyogenes PTCC 1447 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PTCC 1310” in vitro”. In this experimental study، antimicrobial effect of the extracts was ex-plored by two methods including “Collins method” (spreading of the extract on medium sur-face) and “disk agar diffusion method”. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) were determined using the dilution method. The results showed that in «disk agar diffusion method»، the ethanolic extract had the inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus epidermidis، Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococ-cus aureus. The MIC of the aqueous and ethanolic extracts for Pseudomonas aeruginosa was 64 and 32 mg/ml، respectively and the MBC of aqueous and ethanolic extracts for Pseudo-monas aeruginsa was 256 and 128 mg/ml، respectively. Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed the highest level of resistance against the aqueous and ethanolic Teucrium polium extracts. The ethanolic extract of Teucrium polium “in vitro” showed a considerable antim-icrobial effect on Pseudomonas aeruginosa as the gram-negative bacteria and Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus epidermidis، Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus as the gram-positive bacteria.