Abstract
Objective: Plants are natural producers of chemical compounds, many of which are used to protect our health, fight disease and are marketed as a food or herbal medicines. In our study, 18 plant extracts obtained from 3 medicinal plant species, namely Nigella sativa, Cuminum cuminum, and Pimpinella anisum grown in Kırıkkale province with 3 solvents of different polarity by using maceration and soxhlet methods, were analyzed for two gram-positive, two gram-negative bacteria as well as one yeast species. This study aimed to investigate the antimicrobial effect by the disc diffusion method.
Material and Methods: Antimicrobial effects of plant extracts obtained with organic solvents with different polarities such as hexane, dichloromethane, and methanol using maceration and soxhlet methods from dried plant samples were determined using the disc diffusion method. Tukey's test determined differences between tested groups at the α=0.05 level after a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Results: It was determined that 11 of the 18 plant extracts obtained with 3 different solvents had antibacterial effects on gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial species. No effect was observed against C. albicans. It was determined that Nigella sativa had the highest effect on S. aureus among the plants.
Conclusion: It was determined that the plant extracts prepared using different methods and different solvents from the plants grown in Kırıkkale geography have antimicrobial activity. These plants can be a source for chemotherapeutics to be synthesized.