ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF HEXANIC EXTRACT OF RUTA GRAVEOLENS ON KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE- A COMMON POST- ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY INFECTION

Introduction: Klebsiella pneumoniae is one of the most frequent infection organism following orthopedic surgeries and specifically total hip arthroplasty. Recently, attitude toward herbal medicine is being popular both in people and health care systems. Ruta graveolens is a traditional herbal remedy Iranian medicine and some other countries with a wide spectrum of therapeutic utilities. Our purpose was to determine the effects of this medicinal plant on Klebsiella pneumoniae growth. Materials and methods: Standard Klebsiella pneumoniae was used. We assessed the hexane extracts of both leaf and stark of Ruta graveolens on growth of bacterial disc diffusion and serial dilution methods. We compared the results with some standard frequent chemical antibiotics. Results: Our results showed that all doses of leave extract including 200, 250, 300, 350 and 400 micrograms of stark extract had inhibited the growth. In disc diffusion test 500 μg of hexanic extract prevent the growth of bacteria rather than antibiotic discs. We determined minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) by doing their methods. Conclusion: Hexanic extract of Ruta can affect the growth of Klebsiella pneumoniae both for bactericidal and inhibitory effects. It can be a good candidate for more research in vivo to introduce new agent for treating this type of infection.