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Mycopathologia (2008) 165:1319 DOI 10.1007/s11046-007-9077-9
Prevention of Candida albicans biolm by plant oils
Vishnu Agarwal Priyanka Lal Vikas Pruthi
Received: 2 May 2007 / Accepted: 15 October 2007 / Published online: 30 October 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007
Abstract The inhibitory effect of 30 plant oils was evaluated against biolm forming Candida albicans strain (CA I) isolated from clinical samples, which was sensitive to 4 lg/ml of uconazole, used as a positive control. The standard strain (MTCC 227, CAII) used in this study was found to be highly resistant to uconazole, 3,000 lg/ml of which was required to inhibit the growth of this strain partially, and complete inhibition could not be achieved. Eighteen among the 30 plant oils tested were found to show anti-Candida activity by disc diffusion assay. Effective plant oils were assessed using XTT (2, 3-bis [2-Methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulphophenyl]-2H-tetrazolium-5-carboxanilide) reduction assay for biolm quantication. Four oils eucalyptus, peppermint, ginger grass and clove showed 80.87%, 74.16%, 40.46% and28.57% biolm reduction respectively. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values were calculated using agar dilution assay. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis further revealed reduction in C. albicans biolm in response to effective oils. The substantial antifungal activity shown by these plant oils suggests their potential against infections caused by C. albicans.
Keywords Biolm Candida albicans Fluconazole Plant oil SEM XTT
Introduction
Candida albicans is a major fungal pathogen responsible for the majority of nosocomial infections [1]. It causes infection in its biolm mode of growth and has taken centre stage with the increasing recognition of its role in human infections due to the development of resistant or phenotypic adaptation within the biolm [2]. Since years, azole drugs and derivatives continue to dominate as antifungal agents of choice against Candida related infections, as topical applications, or as oral drugs. Even though very widely acclaimed for their efcacy, these drugs are known to have side effects [26]. Besides this, the action of antifungal may be limited by their penetration and chemical reaction into biolm matrix, the extracellular polymeric material [2, 3, 6]. The increasing resistance ofC. albicans towards these antifungal compounds and the reduced number of available drugs led to the search of new therapeutic alternatives among plants and their essential oils, empirically used by antifungal proprieties [7]. Out of all...