IN VITRO ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF ROSMARINUS OFFICINALIS METHANOLIC AND AQUEOUS EXTRACTS

Rachad Alnamer*, Katim Alaoui, Latifa Doudach, El Houcine Bouidida, Fatiha Chibani, Mosaâ??d AL-Sobarry, Abdelaziz Benjouad and Yahia Cherrah

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L., family Lamiaceae) had been reported in traditional medicine, to exhibit antimicrobial properties. Therefore, this study is aimed at determining the antibacterial activity of R. officinalis leaves against pathogenic microorganisms by determination the minimal inhibitory concentration and to serve as criteria to recommend the ethno pharmacological uses of the plant. Plant leaves were dried, powdered and extracted by cold maceration with methanol for 48h. The extracts were screened against 24h broth culture of bacteria seeded in Muller Hinton Agar at concentration 200, 100, 50, 25, 12.5, 6.25, 3.125 and 1.56mg/ml in sterile distilled water and incubated at 37°C, for 18h and measuring the inhibition zone diameter (IZD). Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) against three Gram-positive bacteria (Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis), three Gram-negative bacteria (Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli) were determined for the methanolic and aqueous extracts of Rosmarinus officinalis. The methanolic extract showed pronounced antibacterial than the aqueous extract against all of the tested microorganisms. Methanolic extract inhibited with minimal inhibitory concentration of 1.56, 1.56, 3.13, 1.56, 3.13 and 3.13mg/ml against Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli, respectively, while the aqueous extract inhibited with minimal inhibitory concentration of 6.25 mg/ml against all tested bacterial strains both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The methanolic and aqueous extracts of R. officinalis demonstrated activities against certain bacteria confirming the use of the plant in ethno pharmacology.