Antimicrobial activity of Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.) Poir. from northeast brazil against clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

Mimosa tenuiflora is a native plant of Northeast Brazil where it is popularly known as "jurema-preta" and it is widely used in folk medicine. In this work the anti-Staphylococcus aureus activity of ethanol extract of M tenuiflora was evaluated by determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of clinical isolates by the agar dilution method, and by time-kill assay using a reference strain. MIC values against 30 isolates were 0,18 mg/mL (16/30) or 0,36 mg/mL (14/30, and also the reference strain). In the reference strains, at concentrations up to 4x MIC, only bacteriostatic effect was observed, but at 8x MIC a fast bactericidal effect was observed.