Abstract:
Acacia nilotica belongs to family Fabaceae of genus Acacia while Myrrh is a
natural gum or resin extracted from a number of tree species of genus
Commiphora. They are important medicinal plants possess antimicrobial activities.
This research aimed to provide information about the antimicrobial activity of
aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Acacia nilotica and Myrrh on bacteria isolated
from wound infections.
A total of fifty-six wound swab bacterial isolates were re-identified and tested for
their antibacterial susceptibility against chosen commercial antibiotics;
Amoxicillin/Clavulanic acid, Ciprofloxacin, and Erythromycin, and 100mg/ml
aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Acacia nilotica and Myrrh using Kirby-Bauer
disc diffusion method and Cup-plate method respectively. Data was analyzed using
the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program.
Bacterial isolates were 15(26.8%)Klebsiella pneumonia, 12(21.4%)Staphylococcus
aureus, 11(19.6%)Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 8(14.3%)Escherichia coli,
7(12.5%)Proteus mirabilis, and 3(5.4%)Enterococcus faecalis. It showed varied
susceptibility to antibiotics. Both aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Myrrh showed
no antibacterial activity (0 mm) for all isolated bacteria. One hundred mg/ml of
Acacia nilotica ethanolic extract showed minimum inhibitory zones of 0mm and
maximum of 23mm with mean ranged from 11.5-16mm for all isolates while
aqueous extracts figures were 0-20mm with mean ranged from 12.08-14.57mm.
Inhibitory effect of 100 mg/ml Acacia nilotica water extract showed statistical
significant difference with Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa
with P-value of (0.012) and (0.047) respectively.
This study concluded that 100 mg/ml Myrrh extracts has no antibacterial activity
while 100 mg/ml Acacia nilotica fruits ethanolic and aqueous extracts showed
good activity against all bacterial isolates except for S.aureus that showed
resistance to the ethanolic extract. Water extraction for Acacia nilotica fruits
proved to be more effective than ethanol extraction in case of S.aureus and
P.aeruginosa isolates.
