Abstract

The sensitivity of bacteria isolated from respiratory tract infections for various
antibiotics and peanut was studied. These bacteria included 5 gram- negative
species: Klebsiella pneumoniae (1 isolate), K. oxytoca (1 isolate), Pseudomonas
aeruginosa (6 isolates), Escherichia coli (2 isolates) and Neisseria meningitidis (1
isolate), while gram- positive bacteria included: Staphylococcus aureus (6 isolates),
Streptococcus pneumoniae (6 isolates), Micrococcus antarcticus, coagulasenegative
Staphylococci (CNS) and Corynebacterium spp., one isolate of each. We
tested the sensitivity of bacteria to 16 antibiotics as follows: Tobramycin (10 ìg),
Ceftazidime (30 ìg), Vancomycin (30 ìg), Ampicillin (10 ìg), Cefaclor (30 ìg),
Ofloxacin (5 ìg), Cloxacillin (1 ìg), Cefalothin (30 ìg), Erythromycine (15 ìg),
Clindamycin (2 ìg), Oxytetracycline (30 ìg), Enrofloxacin (5 ìg), Neomycin (30
ìg), Amoxicillin/Clavulanic acid (30 ìg),Ampicillin/ Cloxacillin (30 ìg) and
Cefotaxime (30 ìg). Also the sensitivity of bacteria to ethanolic extracts of peanut
(Arachis hypogaea) was tested. We found that S. aureus was resistant to most
antibiotics (13 antibiotics), and was sensitive to vancomycin, ofloxacin and
enrofloxacin. As well as S. pneumoniae which was sensitive to the same antibiotics
above in addition to ampicillin/ cloxacillin, while was resistant to 12 antibiotics. K.
oxytoca was more resistant than K. pneumoniae and both were sensitive to
enrofloxacin. Both E. coli and P. aeruginosa were resistant to 13 antibiotics and
both were more sensitive to tobramycin and ofloxacin . N. meningitidis resisted 9
antibiotics , where as all of CNS , M. antarcticus and Corynebacterium spp. were
sensitive to most antibiotics. When we studied the sensitivity of bacteria to
ethanolic extracts of Arachis hypogaea ,four isolate of
S. aureus were sensitive with zones of inhibition 7- 11 mm and two isolates were
negative. The growth of two isolates of S. pneumoniae was inhibited with
inhibition zones of 8 and 10 mm, while 4 isolates were not inhibited. The herb
extract recorded zone of inhibition of 8 mm in only one isolate of P. aeruginosa.