In Vitro Comparison of Antibacterial Effects of Ziziphora clinopodioides L. and Some Standard Antibiotics on Bacteria Isolated From Women's Urogenital Tract Infections
Medicinal aromatic herbs have been used traditionally as a strong source of vegetables, spices and natural drugs for many centuries. Thus many recent researchers have become interested in its chemical extraction and antimicroorganism properties (1,2) The Ziziphora genus belongs to Lamiaceae family, with more than 15 species, mainly distributed in the Mediterranean mountainous regions of Europe, Asia and Africa. This plant with the Persian name of Kakuti, consists of four species including Ziziphora clinopodioides, Ziziphora tenuior, Ziziphora capita and Ziziphora persica is found in mountainous regions of Iran (3 5) Many researches have been conducted on the antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal activities of the plants. It has been shown in Iranian and many Asian traditional medicine, such as Turkey, that the infusions of Ziziphora species, especially Ziziphora clinopodioides, have been used as antiseptic, carminative and sedative agent to treat cold, flu, cough, stomach ache and diarrhea (1,6 10) In relation to the phytochemical properties of Ziziphora genus, many researchers suggested that the Ziziphora species are rich in monoterpenoides and phenolic compounds such as thymol, pulegone, piperitenone and p menth 3 en 8 ol, which can have antioxidant and antimicrobial activity against many infectious diseases and pathogens (2,11,12) Due to the extensive distribution of Ziziphora clinopodioides L. and also the wide usage of it in traditional medicine of different regions of East Azerbaijan in Iran, this work was performed to determine the antibacterial activity of Ziziphora clinopodioides L. essential oils and some standard antibiotics against the pathogenic and opportunistic pathogens isolated from women with urogenital tract infections, in order to replace natural antibacterial compounds from that plant rather than synthetic chemical antibiotics from this region.