Antimicrobial potential of the phytoextracts of some Nyctaginaceae members

The emergence of drug resistant pathogens is becoming a serious threat to humanity and has necessitated the search for new antimicrobial drugs. The present study was done to evaluate the potential antimicrobial efficacy of some common members of Nictagenaceae against four bacterial strains; Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus vulgaris. Different concentrations of Soxhlet extracts (aqueous, petroleum ether and ethyl alcohol) of the plants in different solvents were tested by standard filter paper disk diffusion method. The efficacy of the extracts determined from the zone of inhibition was compared with that of two common antibiotics (amphicillin and erythromycin). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of the extracts were also determined from most efficient extracts. The selected plant extracts exhibited good antibacterial activity. The crude phytoextracts showed high degree of antimicrobial activity and confirms the traditional therapeutic claims of these plants. The results confirm that the plant extracts have great potential as antimicrobial compounds against microorganisms. Thus, they can be used in the treatment of infectious diseases caused by resistant microbes. Key words: Antimicrobial activity, soxhlet extracts, disk diffusion method, antibiotics.