The widespread use of antibiotics often causes increase in the bacterial drugs resistance and causes many side effects in humans. Medical plants have antimicrobial effects against most pathogenic bacteria and can serve as harmless replacement to antibiotics. The aim of this study was to assess the antibacterial effect of five medicinal plant prevailed in Kurdistan region namely; Cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia (L.) D.Don), Nigella (Nigella sativa L.), Allium (Allium hirtifolium Boiss.), Carrot (Daucus carota L.), and Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) against pathogenic Gram positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus), and pathogenic Gram negative bacteria (Salmonella typhi and Escherichia coli). The evaluation of antibacterial activity for these plant extracts was carried out using agar-well diffusion method. Results showed that minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of A. hirtifolium against tested bacterial isolates were (25 mg/mL), the lowest MIC values for S. aureus were (25 mg/mL) observed with C. cassia, N. sativa and F. vulgare ethanolic extracts and the lowest MIC of D. carota against bacterial isolates were (50 mg/mL), Also, it was observed that S. aureus was more sensitive than S. typhi and E. coli to plant extracts. The ethanol plant extracts had potential antibacterial activities. However, further studies are required to identify the active compounds which could be used for the preparation of new antimicrobial agents and control the bacterial infectious diseases.

Introduction: Fungi live everywhere in the environment, most of them are not dangerous, but some types of fungi can be harmful to humanhealth. The medicinal plants contain many antimicrobial components that make them recently used as powerful drugs. The aim of the present investigation was to examine the antifungal potential and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of three plant extract: Aloe vera gel, cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) and turmeric (Curcuma longa) against three fungal species: Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans and Fusarium oxysporum. Materials and Methods: The plant materials were extracted using solvents DMSO and ethanol and then were tested against the selected fungal isolates using well diffusion method. Results and Discussion: Antifungal activity of Aloe vera against Aspergillus niger showed MIC value of 25% whereas for Candida albicans and Fusarium oxysporum the MIC obtained was 100%. Both cinnamon and turmeric showed maximum potency against Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans and Fusarium oxysporum at highest MIC value of 100 %. The degree of inhibition increased correspondingly with increasing concentrations of the plant extracts. Conclusions: the tested plant extracts have an antifungal activity and could be used as alternative drugs.

The present study was conducted to study the level of yeast contamination in indoor public swimming pools in Duhok city. A total of 230 samples (50 water sample) were taken from swimming pool water and (180 swab samples) were taken from walls, flour of bathrooms, dressing rooms and flour around the pool in five indoor public swimming pools from September 2014 to February 2015. All samples were examined for the presence of yeasts using three culture media (Potato Dextrose Agar, Malt Extract Agar and Sabouraud's Dextrose Agar). The highest number of Yeast genera was in November (6) followed by October (5), December and January (4) while the lowest number was in September (3). Eleven (11) isolates yeasts were selected randomly for in vitro sensitivity to the disinfectant agents {Chlorine, Chloroxylenol and Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)}. All tested isolates were highly sensitive to chlorine, Chloroxylenol and H2O2. The MIC value of chlorine for most of them was 0.01 % and for Chloroxylenol was 0.1 % except Candida tropicalis and C. glabrata. Regarding the effect of H2O2 the MIC value ranged from 0.1% -12.8 %.

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