Effect of some phenolic compounds isolated from Dittrichia graveolens on some species of multi-Drug-resistant bacteria causing Urinary Tract Infections in Kirkuk city – Iraq

Some plants are an important source of natural chemical products such as phenols. Due to their antibacterial activity, they can be used as antibiotics or to protect foodstuffs from microbial contamination. This requires further laboratory experiments. Urine samples were collected from 100 patients suffering from symptoms of urinary tract infections (UTIs) of both sexes to investigate the most common bacterial species in these infections: Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The response of previously isolated species to eight commonly used antibiotics was tested. The inhibitory effect of the aqueous and alcoholic crude extracts and some phenolic compounds separated from the Dittrichia graveolens was also investigated. The isolates were highly resistant to Cefoxitin, Tetracycline, Ampicillin and Trimethoprim. The highest rate of inhibition zoon was recorded for the alcoholic extract on the above bacterial species at a concentration of 200 mg/ml (16, 12, and 15) mm, respectively. The crude aqueous extract at different concentrations showed no noticeable inhibitory activity on all the isolates. Four compounds were detected and separated from crude alcoholic plant extract: Rutin, Catechol, Pyrogallol, and 4-hydroxy benzoic acid. The highest average inhibition zone diameter was recorded for Pyrogallol, 30 mm for K. pneumoniae,28 mm for S. aureus, and 23 mm for E. coli. In addition, K. pneumoniae was the most sensitive to the four phenolic compounds compared to the other bacterial species.