Abstract :

Prosophis juliflora (Sw.) DC. commonly known as “mesquite” is a native tree of tropical America and is naturalized in many countries including Egypt and India. In the present study, the antimicrobial activities of acetone, chloroform, diethyl ether, methanol, ethanol and DMSO extract of P. juliflora was studies. The extracts and the tetracycline as control were tested in vitro against 6 bacterial species and 4 fungal species by well diffusion method. Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Serratia marcescens, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Phomopsis leptostromiformis var. occidentalis, Pestalotia foedans, Fusarium oxysporum and Paeciliomyces variotii were used in this investigation. The results indicated that DMSO extract exhibited the better antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (21mm), Serratia marcescen (16 mm), Staphylococcus aureus (17.9mm), Pseudomonas fluorescens (16.5 mm), Paeciliomyces variotii (13.2 mm) and Phomopsis leptostromiformis (11mm). The methanol extract exhibited the better activity against Bacillus subtilis(23 mm) and Pestalotia foedans (16 mm). The Ethanol extract showed better activity against Klebsiella pneumoniae (11 mm) and interesting found that no extract showed activity against the fungi Fusarium oxysporum.