Abstract

Fateh AL Rahman F. Magbool*, Elamin Ibrahim Elnima, Shayoub M E and Salah Eldin Omar Hussein

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Plant-derived substances have recently become of great interest owing to their versatile applications. Medicinal plants are the richest bio-resource of drugs of traditional systems of medicine, modern medicines, nutraceuticals, food supplements, folk medicines, pharmaceutical intermediates and chemical entities for synthetic drugs. Materials and methods: Ethanolic extracts prepared from stem bark and leaves of ficus sycomorus as well as the bioactive compounds screened from these crude extracts, were tested for their antimicrobial activity against some gram –ve bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli) , and gram +ve bacterial (Bacillus subtitis, Staphyloccus aureus) and two fungal species (Aspergillus nigor, Candida albicans) using agar diffusion method. Results: The study indicated that the crude extract was active against all pathogens tested and having broad spectrum of activity against bacteria and fungi, whereas screened compounds showed selective activities. These results provide promising baseline information for the potential use of these crude extracts as well as some of the phytochemicals screened secondary metabolites in the treatment of some bacterial and fungal infections.