Antimicrobial Screening of Fennel at the Seedling Stage

Abstract

A wide range of medicinal plant parts that possess varied medicinal properties are used for extracts as raw drugs. In this study, the ethanolic extract obtained from aerial parts of fennel (<em>Foeniculum vulgare</em> Mill.) seedlings was evaluated <em>in vitro</em> to examine their antimicrobial activity against four Gram-negative and three Gram-positive bacteria and two fungi. Aerial parts of one-month-old seedlings were air dried and powdered. Each powdered sample (20 g) was extracted with 200 ml ethanol (96%) using a shaking water bath for 24 h at room temperature. The solvent was removed under vacuum at 40°C using a rotary vacuum evaporator. The antimicrobial effect of the aerial part of fennel seedlings was tested by the disc diffusion method. The experiment was a randomized complete block with three replicates for each sample. Fennel seedling extract had no inhibitory effect against Gram-positive bacteria and fungi, but had a weak effect against Gram-negative bacteria.