Vinegar Activity against Clinically Isolated Escherichia Coli

A bstract Background: Antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli (E. coli) has become a worrying issue been increasingly observed worldwide in recent decades. E. coli intrinsically has a great capacity to accumulate resistance, making them difficult to treat with standard therapies. So, using alternative strategies to treat it is urgent. Material and Methods: The bacteria were isolated from urinary tracts and wounds, and then cultured in three media (blood agar, MacConkey agar, and eosin methylene blue agar). They were incubated for 24 h at a temperature of 37 o C to grow. The well diffusion method was used to evaluate the activity of vinegar, and the disk diffusion method was used for antibiotic sensitivity test of gentamicin as a control agent after overnight incubation. Statistical analysis was done by using SPSS 26 software. Results: Out of the 24 participants in the study, 66.6% were women, while 33.4% were men with significant differences ( P < 0.05). Isolated E. coli (75%) were sensitive to vinegar, while 70.80% of isolates were sensitive to gentamycin. The mean inhibition zone for vinegar was 13 ± 6.04 mm compared to 15 ± 6.43 mm for gentamicin with no significant differences ( P = 0.27). Conclusions: Vinegar shows 75% sensitivity to clinically isolated E. coli , and thus it can be a promising treatment option. Gentamicin with high rate of sensitivity can be used as an empirical treatment for E. coli infections. Vinegar has similar activity to gentamicin ( P > 0.05).