Antimicrobial Activity of Water-alcoholic Extracts of Representatives of the Genus Potentilla L

Introduction. The emerging resistance of bacteria to drugs is one of the serious problems of medicine, which stimulates the constant search for new antimicrobial drugs, also of natural origin. Researchers widely address representatives of various families and genus of the plant world, using various morphological groups of plant raw materials, studying the effect of both the sum of extracted substances and individual compounds. Aim. Investigation of antimicrobial activity of water-alcohol extracts of some representatives of the genus Potentilla in the search for new antimicrobial medicines of plant origin. Materials and methods. The objects of the study were extracts on 40 and 70 % ethyl alcohol from the aboveground part of Potentilla anserin а L., P. erecta (L.) Raeusch, P. argentea L., P. paradoxa Nutt. ex Torr. et Gray, P. goldbachii Rupr., P. approximate Bunge, P. chrysantha Trevir. Antimicrobial activity was determined by diffusion into agar using paper disks. Collection strains of Escherichia coli , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) and 29 strains of MSSA isolated from biomaterial from patients were used as test cultures. The sensitivity of MSSA strains to antibiotics was characterized by an antibioticogram. Results and discussion. The strain of Escherichia coli turned out to be insensitive to all extracts of the paws. The strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is minimally sensitive to extracts of 40 % ethyl alcohol of P. anserin а and P. argentea , to 40 and 70 % extracts of P. approximata . All strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) are sensitive to all extracts of the paws to varying degrees. Among 40 % of the extracts, the most active are P. anserin а , P. paradoxa and P. erecta extracts, among 70 % of the extracts are P. paradoxa and P. argentea extracts. Conclusion. The studied extracts of seven Potentilla species showed antimicrobial activity against both sensitive and insensitive to antibiotic strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) to a close or comparable degree, while extracts on 40 % ethyl alcohol are slightly more active compared toextracts on 70 % ethyl alcohol. The results indicate that the studied Potentilla species are promising for further research.