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The present work examined the in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the essential oil and methanol extract from Achillea biebersteinii Afan. (Asteraceae). The essential oil exhibited antimicrobial activity against 8 bacteria, 14 fungi and the yeast C. albicans, whereas methanolic extract remained inactive. The antioxidative capacity of the samples was evaluated by using DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and b-carotene/linoleic acid assays. In both assays, the extract showed better antioxidative capacity than the oil. The extract reduced the stable free radical DPPH with lower IC50 value (89.90 µg/ml) than the oil (8900 µg/ml). In the β-carotene/linoleic acid assay, the samples were not effectively able to inhibit the linoleic acid oxidation, exhibiting only 22.7% (the extract) and 16% (the essential oil) inhibitions at 2 mg/ml, far below than that of BHT (97.0%). Total phenolic constituent of the extract was 51 µg/mg (5.1%, w/w) as gallic acid equivalent. GC-MS analysis of the essential oil resulted in the identification of 64 components representing 92.24% of the oil. Piperitone, camphor and 1,8-cineole (eucalyptol) were the main constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethanol, methanol, and hexane extracts from Ocimum basilicum Labiatae (sweet basil) were investigated for their invitro antimicrobial properties. A total of 146 microbial organisms belonging to 55 bacteria, and four fungi, and a yeast species were studied using a disk-diffusion and minimal inhibition concentration (MIC) method. The result showed that none of the three extracts tested have antifungal activities, but anticandidal and antibacterial effects. Both the hexane and methanol extracts, but not the ethanol extracts, inhibited three isolates out of 23 strains of Candida albicans studied. All three extract of O. basilicum were different in terms of their antibacterial activities. The hexane extract showed a stronger and broader spectrum of antibacterial activity, followed by the methanol and ethanol extracts, which inhibited 10, 9 and 6% of the 146 bacterial strains tested, respectively. The minimal inhibition zones (MIC) of the hexane, methanol, and ethanol extracts ranged from 125 to 250 µl/ml, 62.50 to 500 µl/ml, and 125 to 250 µl/ml, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The methanol extract of Verbascum georgicum Bentham (Scrophulariaceae) was investigated for its in-vitro antimicrobial properties. A total of 143 microorganisms belonging to 56 bacteria and 4 fungi and a yeast species were studied using the disk-diffusion method and microdilution assays. The results indicated that the methanol extract of V. geopgicum had an inhibitory effect on the growth of all Candida albicans isolates and 17 strains in 10 different species of bacteria, namely Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, B. subtilis, B. cereus, B. pumilus, B. megaterium, B. lentimorbus, B. licheniformis, Pseudomonas putida, P. syringae and Escherichia coli, at different concentrations ranging from 37.5 to 300 µg/ml. However, it did not show antifungal activity against the isolates of the 4 fungal species tested. Thus, the results suggest that V. georgicum extract possesses compounds with antimicrobial properties that might be utilized for developing new drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]