الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
There is an enormous desire to back to the ’natural’ lifestyle. It was reported that there are many herbal extracts have applications in medicine, including feverfew, Ginkgo, ginseng, caraway, peppermint, curcuma and ginger. Moreover, different herbal plants and their extracts could be considered as enriched sources of new natural antimicrobial agents against fungi, bacteria or viruses. The extracts of green tea, thyme and sweet marjoram are among those having antimicrobial activity.
In the present study, thirty one microorganisms were collected from different clinical specimens (urine, pus, blood, sputum, stool, prostatic fluids and contact lens). These microbial isolates were identified using microscopical examination, conventional biochemical tests as well as the API 20E identification system. They were S. aureus (14), S. epidermidis (2), S. saprophyticus (1), E. coli (8), Ent. sakazakii (1), Ps. aeruginosa (3) and C. albicans (2).
For further characterization, twenty nine microbial isolates were tested for their susceptibility to antibiotics belonging to different groups using the modified disc agar diffusion technique. The corresponding antibiotic resistance patterns revealed that (S1) and (Ent and P1) were the most resistant staphylococci and Gram negative isolates, respectively.
The biostatic activity of green tea, thyme and sweet marjoram extracts was evaluated against all tested microorganisms using the agar dilution technique. Their MIC values against Staphylococcus spp were 3.125-6.25, 3.125 and 12.5-> 50 mg/mL, respectively. On the other hand, their MIC values against Gram negative bacteria and yeast were > 50 mg/mL.
No correlation was found between the sensitivity of the selected microorganisms to the antimicrobial activity of the tested herbal extracts and their sensitivity to the antibiotics tested in the susceptibility test using the disc agar diffusion method.