In order to determine the antimicrobial activities of ethanol extracts from 19 Chinese herbal medicines in vitro against common clinical pathogenic bacteria. The dried powder of the collected 19 Chinese herbal medicine samples were extracted with 80% ethanol at room temperature and the solvent was evaporated under reduced pressure to get the ethanol extracts. In this study, each extract was screened for antimicrobial activity using the agar diffusion method, and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal/fungicidal concentration (MBC/MFC) were determined by serial microdilulion method. The results were as follows: Ethanol extracts of 19 Chinese herbal medicine had different degrees of antimicrobial activities. lnhibition zones of 14 ethanol extracts against SA, EC, PA and CA were. between 8-27 nun, inhibition zones of the extracts from Euphorbia humifusa, Chloranthus japonicas, Berberis sargentiana, Thalictrum petaloideum and Rumex madaio were between 10.3-26.6 nun against SA and EC. The ethanol extracts from Thalictrum petaloideum, Cuminum cyminum, Euphorbia humifusa, Curcuma kwangsiensis, Andrographis paniculata, Leonurus artemisia, Evodia rutaecarpa, Rumex madaio, Helwingia japonica, Hymenodictyon flaccidum, Pteris multifida and Berberis sargentiana had significant antimicrombial activities against pathogens (MHSA and Pseudomonas aeruginosa resistant strain), the ranges of MIUCs/MBCs were between 391 and 6 250 μg· mL-1; the lowest MlC values for Euphorbia humifusa and Berberis sargentiana against MHSA were obtained (respectively, 391 μg · mL-1/781 μg · mL-1 ), the lowest MlC value for Euphorbia humifwa and Berberis sargentiana was 1 562. 5 μg · mL-1 against Pseudomonru aeruginosa resistant strain; the ethanol extracts from Thalictrum petaloideum, Cuminum cyminum, Berberis sargentiana were moderately inhibitory to the test Candida albicans resistant strain, and the sterilization effect was not obvious. These results provide the reference for selecting plant species as potential antibacterial compounds and antibacterial adjuvants of antibacterial and antifungal drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]