Investigation of the antimicrobial activity of some species belonging to salix

Eight hydroalcoholic extracts from Salicaceae family namely, Salix acmophylla (male and female), Salix amplexicaulis (male and female), Salix excelsa (male and female) and Salix eleagnos (male and female) were collected from different localities in Turkey were investigated in vitro for antimicrobial activity against fourteen bacteria strains including, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Enterococcus faecalis , Enterococcus faecium, Klebsiella pneumoinae, Pseudomons aeruginosa, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella enteritidis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Salmonella infantis, Salmonella kentucky and Salmonella typhimurium and one fungus which is Candida albicans. Antimicrobial activity of extracts was tested by using disk diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration by using 96 micro-titer plates (microdilution method). Antimicrobial activity of all extracts was compared with 10 standerd antibiotics including Ofloxacin, Streptomycin, Tetrecyclin, Meropenem, Vancomycin, Ampicillin, Ceftazidime, Gentamicin, Kanamycin and Linomycin. All extracts showed antimicrobial activity against some bacteria strains. This activity increased as the concentration of extracts increased. From this study it was observed that all bacteria except E. coli, B. subtilis, K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa were affected by at least one plant extract. For Candida albicans used in this study all plant extracts did not show any antimicrobial activity against this yeast except Salixamplexicaulis male and female. Key Words: Salix, salicaceae, MIC, antimicrobial activity, disk diffusion method.