مشخصات پژوهش

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the second most common type of infection find in human body. Annually UTIs result in spending more than 6 billion dollars on medical costs worldwide. The most important cause of community and hospital acquired UTIs is Esherichia coli. Because of increasing antibiotic resistance among this uropathogen, the aim of this study was to find alternative antimicrobial agents from plant extracts. S o the antibacterial activities of Malva sylvestris extract against uropathogenic E. coli isolates were investigated. A total 30 E. coli isolates was collected from midstream urine specimens of patients examined for urinary tract infection in Emam Hossein Hospital, Hashtroud,Iran. Different extracts were prepared with n-hexan, dichloromethan and methanol The susceptibility of bacterial isolates to extracts were tested by Standard Disk-Diffusion Method and Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MIC) in accordance to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. The concentrations of extracts tested were 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200 μg/ml. The results indicated that the methonolic extracts exhibit high antimicrobial effects. So that about 83% of the isolates having an MIC of ≤1.2 mg/ml. About 36% of the isolates having an MIC of ≤0.8 mg/ml. only third of isolates had MIC of ≤0.6 mg/ml. Concentration of 0.4 mg/ml had no effect on the isolatesThese MIC results suggest that this plant can be used as a natural treatment agent against UTIs caused by E. coli