*3.8. Antibacterial Activity Assays*

The antibacterial activities of the extracts were tested against two pathogenic species, a Gram-positive bacterium (*Staphylococcus aureus* ATCC 6538) and a Gram-negative bacterium (*Pseudomonas aeruginosa* ATCC 9027), using the agar-well diffusion method [4] with some modification. The two bacterial cultures were grown in Difco Nutrient Agar (BD Difco, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA) for 24 h at 32 ◦C then diluted with sterile distilled water to obtain an inoculum concentration of 10<sup>6</sup> cfu/mL before the suspensions were spread on the nutrient agar medium. Aliquots of each phenolic extract (70 μL) were added to an 8-mm diameter paper disc placed on the plates then incubated at 32 ◦C for 24 h. The positive and negative controls used gentamicin (5 μg) (Merck, Kenilworth, NJ, USA) and sterile distilled water, respectively. The antibacterial activity was determined as the diameter of the inhibition zones (mm) around the discs from each extract.
