Evaluation of the Antimicrobial Activity of Selected Fabaceae Plants

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial properties of several distinct species belonging to the Fabaceae family, namely Astragalus sigmoideus, Genista albida, Astragalus syringus, Ononis hirta, Astragalus lydius, Astragalus wiedemannianus, and Anthyllis tetraphylla. Extracts from the plant samples were prepared using a solvent mixture of 60% ethanol and 40% water. These extracts were then tested against 15 different microorganisms, including Bacillus subtilis DSMZ 1971, Enterobacter aerogenes ATCC 13048, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212, Enterococcus faecium, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa DSMZ 50071, Pseudomonas fluorescens P1, Salmonella enteritidis ATCC 13075, Salmonella infantis, Salmonella kentucky, Salmonella typhimurium SL 1344, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Staphylococcus epidermidis DSMZ 20044, and Candida albicans DSMZ 1386.

The research utilized the disk diffusion (DD) and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) methods. The results revealed that different plant extracts exhibited activity against specific microorganisms. Notably, the extracts showed inhibitory effects against E. faecalis, K. pneumoniae, P. fluorescens, S. aureus, and S. typhimurium, with varying sizes of inhibition zones. The MIC values for all microorganisms that displayed antimicrobial activity in the DD assay consistently measured at 10 μg/mL, except for P. fluorescens, where it was 5.0 μg/mL when treated with the A. sigmoideus extract.