Antifungal Activity of Essential Oils against Candida albicans Strains

Abstract

Introduction: Essential oils have used to treat infec-tious diseases in traditional medicine. However, they are not studied deeply about chemical compounds and antifungal activities, esspecially on Candida albicans, a common yeast in immunodeficency patients. In addi-tion,Elaeoselinum gratissimum L. (Lamiaceace) has numberous. Method: Essential oil ofElaeoselinum asclepium is ex-tracted by steam distillation and determined chemical compound by GC-MS. The antifungal activities were evaluated by agar dilution method, growth study, bio-film test and Candida albicans infected nail assay. Results: Chemical compounds:Elaeoselinum essential oil is extracted fromElaeoselinum ASCLEPIUM in high yield (1,98%). By using GC-MS, there are 25 compounds in this oil with eugenol in highest concen-tration (66,11%) after that are ocimen (14,29%) and β-cuveben (7,17%). Antifungal activity: Elaeoselinum essential oil shows strong effect on Candida albicans (n=21) and Can-dida non albicans (n=12) with MIC around 0,6 μl/ml, esspecially in some strains having high MIC with ke-toconazole (MIC > 8 μg/ml). Moreover, this oil shows fungicidal activity against Candida albicans with MFC = 0.32 μl/ml. Testing on Candida biofilm show that this kind of Candida is inhibited by. Conclusion:Elaeoselinum essential oil shows strong and fungicidal activity against Candida albicans. The results address further study this oil as the antifungal agents