The Antibacterial Effects of the Aqueous and Ethanolic Extracts of Cordia myxa L. Fruit on Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli

With the advent of increasing resistance of microorganisms to synthetic antibiotics, researches has been carried out to replace chemical drug by traditional medicinal plants. This study has been conducted with the purpose of determining the inhibitory effect of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Cordia myxa on a number of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Antimicrobial activity of extract was determined by four pour plate, disk agar diffusion, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). Analysis and mean comparison were performed using Duncan’s test and one-way analysis of variance at a confidence level of α=95% (p<0.05). In this study, aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Cordia myxa fruit were effective on gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus. The highest values of MIC and MBC for aqueous extract were obtained 64 and 256mg/ml, respectively, and for ethanolic extract were 32 and 256mg/ml, respectively, for Salmonella typhi, so this bacterium has been known as the most resistant strain against the aqueous and ethanolic extract of Cordia myxa fruit. In this research, only one method of extraction was used for the evaluation of antimicrobial effect, so application of other methods of extraction and study of antimicrobial effect of other organs of the plant are necessary to obtain more precise results.