The objective of this study was to determine the radical scavenging activity, total phenolic content, antimicrobial activity, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of ethanol extracts of 32 medical plant species that have been commonly used in medicinal plants. Total phenolic index of T. chebula exhibited the highest value (498.01㎎/g), followed by R. coreanus miquel (400.33㎎/g), Sanguisorba officinalis (368.25㎎/g), P. thumbergiana (259.74㎎/g) and Eugenia aromaticum (229.38㎎/g). Radical scavenging activity for the DPPH radical was highest in T. chebula (40.91%, p<0.01), followed by C. sappan (36.50%), S. officinalis (32.92%), R. coreanus miquel (26.54%) and P. thumbergiana (24.50%). The extracts from T. chebula, R. coreanus muquel, C. sappan, E. aromaticum, S. officinalis and C. japonica possessed outstanding antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Salmonella Typhimurium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Lactobacillus plantarum. MIC was determined on those extracts that showed high efficacy against the test organisms. The most potent MIC values were seen for T. chebula extract against P. aeruginosa, S. aurusa, E. coli, B. subtilis, L. plantarum and S. Typhimurium at 7.8, 7.8, 15.6, 7.8, 125 and 31.2㎍/mL, respectivley. Furthermore, the total phenolic content and radical scavenging activity were very closely correlated for all samples (r=0.78). The coefficient correlations between total phenolic index and antimicrobial activity were 0.91 (E. coli), 0.91 (B. subtillis), 0.79 (P. aeruginosa), 0.79 (S. Typhimurium) and 0.70 (L. plantarum).