Antibacterial activity evaluation of Ephedra Major Host acetonic, aqueous and alcoholic extracts against standard strains of E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus and S. pyogenes

According to WHO reports increase of antibacterial resistance is a growing problem in many countries. Many efforts have been made to discover new antimicrobial compounds from various kinds of sources such as micro-organisms, animals, and plants. One of such resources is folk medicines. Systematic screening of them may result in the discovery of novel effective compounds. This study was undertaken to evaluate the growth inhibitory activity of Ephedra major Host, an important medicinal plant with various biological activities, against pathogenic Bacteria involved in common infection.Plant collection was made from district west Tehran, Iran. Extracts were obtained from arial part of plant using ethanol, acetone, methanol and water. Extract was evaporated under vacuum at 60° C. Antibacterial activities of extracts were determined by In Vitro bioassays using agar diffusion-method, MIC and MBC against standard strains of Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853), Streptococcus pyogenes (PTCC 1447) and E. coli (ATCC 8739). E. coli exhibit sensitive only to acetone extract, Pseudomonas aeruginosa was resistance to water extract. Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes were sensitive to all tested extracts.