BACKGROUND Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease prevalent in the tropics especially in Africa and Asia is one of the highest causes of morbidity and mortality and a global concern. With increasing resistance of the pathogen, to existing antituberculosis drugs and the synergy between TB infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), the need for development of new drugs to cope with the infection is urgent. OBJECTIVE Extracts from 16 plants identified and selected from the ethnomedicine of the Ijebus in Southwestern Nigeria as remedies for tuberculosis were evaluated for activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, in vitro. METHODS Plant extracts were screened against clinical isolate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis using agar plate method on Middlebrook 7H11 medium and observed for 12 weeks. RESULTS The crude aqueous methanol extracts. showed varying degrees of activity at concentrations of 0.025 - 100 mg/mL. Ocimum grattisimum (leaf) demonstrated the highest activity with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.025 mg/mL. Two standard anti-tuberculosis drugs; rifampicin and isoniazid, included in the assay had MIC values of 0.01 mg/mL and 0.0005 mg/mL, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The results of the study confirm the ethnopharmacological uses of some of the plants for TB indicating their potential as sources for the discovery of anti-tuberculosis drugs.