Antimicrobial agents in Egyptian folk medicine

ABSTRACT

Aninvestigation was made into the presence of antimicrobia.l substances contained in certain Egyptian folk medicines. Seeds of cumin and caraway and leaves of guava, camphor, mint and tiliso and flowers of several herbaceous plants contained antimicrobial agents. These agents could be extracted from guava and camphor leaves by benzene, chloroform, ethyl ether and ethyl acetate and from cumin and caraway seeds by ethyl ether and alcohol and from the herbaceous flowers and mint leaves by benzene, ethyl ether and alcohol