Antibacterial Potential of Ethanol Extract of Marigold (Tagetes erecta L.)

Antimicrobial resistance is a pandemic which affects the therapeutic options of many people in need by rendering most known antibacterial agents ineffective. The answer to the problem may be found in the old books written by ancient philosophers who used various plants to treat the sick. Our objective was to study the antibacterial properties of the commonly found plant, Tagetes erecta L., and to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the crude ethanol extract. A maceration protocol was used to obtain crude ethanol extract of dried aerial parts of T. erecta and broth microdilution method to test the antibacterial activity of the extract against selected Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The inhibitory effect of the T. erecta extract was documented with MICs for Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus being 368 mg/ml and 182 mg/ml for Enterococcus faecalis. The MBCs for all bacterial species were 368 mg/ml. The current study demonstrates the antibacterial properties of T. erecta and its potential use as a source of antibacterial compounds.