The inhibitory effect of acetone, ethanol, and aqueous extracts of ten medicinal plants on β-lactamase from Staphylococcus sciuri and Klebsiella pneumoniae was investigated in vitro by starch-iodine agar plate method. The results revealed the success of starch-iodine method for the detection of the inhibition of β-lactamase activity by the various extracts of each individual plant. The acetone extracts of Catharanthus roseus, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, and Schinus terebinthifolius induced an inhibitory effect on β-lactamase from Staphylococcus sciuri. On the other hand, acetone extracts from only Eucalyptus camaldulensis, and Schinus terebinthifolius expressed strong inhibitory effect on β-lactamase from Klebsiella pneumoniae. The acetone extracts expressed the highest inhibition for β-lactamases activity compared to ethanolic and aqueous extracts which exhibited appreciable inhibitory effect. β-lactamase from S. sciuri was inhibited by extracts from C. roseus, E. camaldulensis and S. terebinthifolius whereas β-lactamase from K. pneumoniae was inhibited only by extracts from E. camaldulensis and S. terebinthifolius.

Green synthesis of metal nanoparticles (NPs) from plant extracts has attracted significant interest in modern medicine. Therefore, this study prepared an aqueous extract of Sophora flavescens roots, which are used in folk medicine to treat several diseases, including bacterial infections. In addition, silver NPs (AgNPs) were synthesized from root extract using the green synthesis method. The NPs were diagnosed using modern methods. Additionally, the antibacterial activity of the root aqueous extract and AgNPs aqueous preparation (at concentrations of 7% and 9%, respectively) was examined against selected isolates of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. The results indicated that both the plant extract and NP preparations inhibited pathogenic bacterial isolates.

In this study, out of 50 isolates of some nosocomial infections from some Baghdad hospitals, only 13 (26%) were identified as Escherichia coli. Depending on selective media, morphological and biochemical tests the species was then confirmed by molecular methods. Later on  antimicrobial resistance test was performed by the Kirby-Bauer method. The molecular characterization of blaTEM and blaCTX-M genes in different clinical isolates of E. coli was done through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by utilizing special primers. These genes were positive to only 4 (30.7%) isolates. The sequence of nucleotides of positive genes was carried out for four isolates. The results showed that there was no variance in the nucleotide sequence between Iraqi isolates compared with the global isolates, and that they were 100% identical to many genera of Enterobacteriaceae. Finally, due to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, these genes in human strains were likely the source of widespread drug resistance.