Phytochemical and Antimicrobial Properties of Tamarix aphylla L. Leaves Growing Naturally in the Abha Region, Saudi Arabia

In this study, antimicrobial activities of some solvent extracts of fresh and dry leaves of Tamarix aphylla against eight clinical isolates of bacteria and Candida and the chemical compounds present in the hexane extract were determined. The results showed that cold-water extract has no antimicrobial effect against any of the microbes tested, while hot-water extract showed 75 % antimicrobial activities against the same microbes. Extracts involving methanol, chloroform, petroleum ether, acetone and diethyl ether of dry and fresh T. aphylla leaves showed a 100 % lethal effect against all the tested pathogenic microbes. Additionally, superior performance has been observed in the cases of methanol extract against Proteus mirabilis, chloroform and diethyl ether extracts against Klebsiella oxytoca, petroleum ether extract against Candida sp. compared with the standard antibiotic drug. The GC-MS analysis revealed that the leaves contain ten different chemical compounds; propenoic acid (28.99 %) and beta-d-mannofuranose (23.04 %) are found to be dominant. In conclusion, extraction methods using polar and nonpolar solvents of T. aphylla leaves showed great antimicrobial effect on pathogenic tested microbes. This could be used in the treatment of infectious diseases caused by multidrug-resistant bacterial strains "that are resistant to multidrug treatment" and Candida sp. From the pharmaceutical viewpoint, the identified phytochemical in the T. aphylla is reported to be biologically important and needs further investigation with regard to isolations to develop the safe and cheap drugs.