antimicrobial activity of some species from pinaceae and cupressaceae

The aim of this study was to determine the antimicrobial activities of ethereal extracts of some Pinaceae and Cup-ressaceae species collected from Turkey. The extracts from Pinus nigra Arn., P. brutia Ten., P. halepensis Mill., Abies equi-trojani (Asch. et Sint. ex Boiss.) Coode et Cullen, A. bornmulleriana Mattf., A. cilicica (Ant. et Kotschy) Carr., A. nordmanniana (Steven) Spach., Cedrus libani A. Rich. and Picea orientalis L. belong to Pinaceae family and Juniperus oxycedrus L. subsp. oxycedrus, J. foetidissima Willd., J. excelsa Bieb., J. phoenicea L., Cupressus semper-virens var. pyramidalis Nym. and C. sempervirens var. horizontalis (Mill.) Gord. belong to Cupressaceae family we-re examined against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, S. aureus ATCC 43300 (MRSA), Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Klebsiella pneumoniae RSKK 574 and Candida albicans ATCC 10231. The disc diffusion method was used to determine the antimicrobial activities of these extracts. All the tested extracts, except A. bornmulleriana, C. libani and P. halepensis showed weak antibacterial activity against the various tested bacteria comparing with the standards. Nevertheless, no antifungal activity was observed against C. albicans in all extracts. It was concluded that the tested extracts did not show promising anti-microbial activity against tested microorganisms. However, this is the first comprehensive investigation on the eva-luation of antimicrobial activities on ethereal extracts of these species