Investigation on antimicrobial activity of Pistacia lentiscus L. and Pinus brutia Ten.

In this study, resinous exudate obtained from two different trees were tested in respect of their antimicrobial and antifungal activities against different microorganisms. The tree Scinos (Pistacia lentiscus L.) is grown in the south part of Chios Island. Firstly, the acidic fraction of the resinous exudate obtained from the roots and stems of Pistacia lentiscus were screened for antimicrobial activity against H. pylori by using broth dilution method. H. pylori is a gram negative, microaerophilic, positive urease, curved (2 to 5 urn length, 0.5 to 1 urn diameter) bacterium and morpholog includes spiral, rod, gull- winged, U-shapped and cocoid forms. It is well know that H. pylori causes chronic bacterial infection in human stomach. This cronic infections are potential risk factor for peptic ulcer diseases and that is associated with gasrit carcinoma. The minimal bacterial concentration of the resinous exudate for H. pylori were found to be 0.060 mg/mL by broth dilution method. Secondly, the antimicrobial activity of the resinous exudate obtained from the stems and roots of Pinus brutia Ten. was tested against some microorganisms. Pinus brutia localised in the inner Taurus mountain of South Anatolia. In this region, resinous is utilised for infections in the skin of human and animals. The antimocrobial activity of crude and methanol, hexane, chloform, petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and n-butanol extracts of resinous obtained from the roots and stems of Pinus brutia (red pine) used in the folk medicine of Turkey, were screened in vitro for antimicrobial activity against clinically isolated bacterial strains; Staphylococcus aureus (15 isolates), Streptococcus pyogenes (12 isolates), Escherichia coli (17 isolates), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12 isolates) and yeast fungus Candida albicans (1 isolate) by paper disc diffusion method. All the clinical test organisms were obtained from the Microbiology Department at the Universty of Dicle. Escherichia coli K12, Escherichia coli DH1, Bacillus cereus and Bacillus brevis ATCC were obtained from TÜBİTAK, Marmara Research Center, Gen Engineering and Biotecnology Research Institute. The antibiotic dise contained, Imipenem (lOug/disc), Erythromycin (15ug/disc), Ampicillin/Sulbactam (10|ag/10p,g/disc) ve Amoxycillin (25[xg/disc) were used as a positive controls.