Antimicrobial Substances from Ferns

Abstract

IT has been almost twenty years since Osborn¹ reported his now classical work on antimicrobial substances from green plants. Since that time the literature accumulated on this subject has been voluminous². The vascular plants tested, however, have been essentially spermatophytes, with little attention to the pteridophytes. This work is concerned with the extraction of antimicrobial substances from thirty ferns collected at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. The specimens were selected at random, and the cut fronds were allowed to dry in air for at least one week before testing. Four additional dried ferns were obtained from other sources and likewise tested.