Investigation of antimicrobial effects of essential oil and secondary metabolite extraction from Ruscus aculeatus L. (Asparagaceae)

Ruscus aculeatus L. (Asparagaceae) is an important species with medicinal, industrial, and ornamental uses. In this study, the oil extract and secondary metabolites obtained from the fruit of R. aculeatus were tested against some bacterial and fungal pathogens to investigate their antimicrobial properties. R. aculeatus plant was collected from Yalıncak/Trabzon in May 2024. To get essential oil, the ripe fruits of the R. aculeatus plant dry weight were weighed, crushed with a mortar and transferred to a Soxhlet cartridge. And for getting secondary metabolites, 30 grams of ground leaves were placed in two different jars containing 100 mL of ethanol and methanol. The crude extracts and the solvents were evaporated in a rotary evaporator to obtain crude extracts. The extract obtained was used for antimicrobial tests by the disc diffusion method. Firstly, each pathogen was inoculated into Mueller-Hinton Agar (MHA) medium by smear inoculation. Then, antibiotic discs were placed in the medium. Each disc was impregnated with 30 µl of extract. The same volume of kanamycin was used as a control. After 24 and 48 hours, the diameters of the zones formed around the discs were measured and recorded. In the antimicrobial experiment, the analysis of the ES column revealed that the compound demonstrated no efficacy against E. cloaceae, S. epidermidis, K pneumoniae, and C. albicans (p>0.01). However, it was observed to form a significant inhibition zone in other bacterial groups. At the end of the study, it was determined that the extraction was effective on Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633.