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Abstract
The Thymus L. is one of the most widely used genera in folk medicine, where it is popular for its stimulatory action on all organism functions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial effects of five ethanolic extracts obtained from leaves of some Thymus L. representatives (Thymus serpyllum L., Th. pannonicus All., Th. × porcii Borbás, Th. pulegioides L., Th. alpestris Tausch ex A. Kern.) against Acinetobacter baumannii complex isolate, resistant to gentamicin and ciprofloxacin (specimen 3680, UK NEQAS). Freshly leaves were washed, weighed, crushed, and homogenized in 96 % ethanol (in proportion 1:19) at room temperature. The extracts were then filtered and investigated for their antimicrobial activity. Antimicrobial activity was determined using the agar disk diffusion assay. The present study has shown that ethanolic extracts obtained from leaves of Thymus species inhibited mild activity against A. baumannii. The mean diameter of inhibition zone for Th. serpyllum was (10.45 ±0.81) mm, for Th. pannonicus (10.82 ±0.63) mm, for Thymus x porcii (9.57 ±0.75) mm, for Th. pulegioides (10.54 ±0.52) mm, and for Th. alpestris (10.62 ±0.54) mm. It should be noted that the most antimicrobially effective plant against Acinetobacter baumannii was Thymus pannonicus. The present study lays the basis for future research, to validate the possible use of Thymus species as a candidate in the treatment of bacterial infections. The knowledge about the chemical profile of the extract will help in explaining the observed activity and designing experiments for activity fractionation for isolation of the active principle. The identification of precise molecular mechanisms addressing how these extracts inhibit bacterial growth needs to be explored.