Antifungal activity of Satureja hortensis alcoholic extract against Aspergillus and Candida species

Abstract

Pharmacological and biological investigations have justified the traditional application of Satureja hortensis as a natural source of compounds for food conservation, as well as in the treatment of ailments including inflammatory diseases, cramps, muscle pains, nausea, indigestion, diarrhea, and infectious diseases. Regarding to the low number of reports of Satureja hortensis antifungal activities, we focused on the inhibitory and fungicidal effects of the Satureja alcoholic extract on Candida and Aspergillus species. The subjects included patients with clinical isolates of Candida and Aspergillus obtained from UMSU University Hospital, Urmia, Iran. A total of 51 clinical isolates, including 31(60.8%) Candida albicans and 20(39.2%) Aspergillus species, respectively, were obtained. McFarland 0.5 solutions of the fungal isolates were treated with alcoholic (ethanol) extract of S. hortensis using 1-tube serial dilutions (MIC) and 2-agar serial dilutions (MFC). The Inhibitory range for Candida isolates was shown to be 1/20 to 1/320. Findings of MIC and MFC on Aspergillus isolates showed that the lowest effective concentration was detected at the dilution point of 1/80 (MIC=12.5 mg/ml). Also, we got the result of 24 hours as the best incubation time of treatment for all the Aspergillus isolates tested. Our findings showed that the alcoholic extract of S. hortensis is able to inhibit growth of some Candida and Aspergillus clinical isolates in vitro and also killed them in higher concentrations.

Chemical composition and in vitro activity of Origanum vulgare L., Satureja hortensis L., Thymus serpyllum L. and Thymus vulgaris L. essential oils towards oral isolates of Candida albicans and Candida glabrata

“…It is well known that the composition, quality and content of EOs are subject to a great variation and are influenced by diverse factors such as the geographical and climatic conditions, as well as the conditions used for culture, drying and storage, the harvesting season, or differences in oil extraction techniques. Consequently, these variations can have a repercussion on the biological activity of EOs [7,10,11].…”

“…Many of the natural products containing EOs and their constituents have antimicrobial properties, while several studies have shown high sensitivity of pathogenic fungi, including yeasts, to EOs [2,[5][6][7][8]. According to Waller et al [9][10][11], 55 botanical species belonging to 27 genus exhibit antifungal effects, especially the aromatic plants, notably Origanum vulgare L., Satureja hortensis L., Thymus serpyllum L. and Thymus vulgaris L. from the Lamiaceae family. These plants are a rich source of EOs [6,12,13], the major components of which may belong to several classes of compounds, mainly terpenes, such as thymol and carvacrol [12,14].…”

Antifungal activity of selected volatile essential oils against Penicillium sp.

“…Carvacrol and thymol, and the effective constituents of S. hortensis L., may be useful in controlling aflatoxin contamination of susceptible crops in the field [ 47 ]. Kambiz et al [ 48 ] clearly demonstrate that the alcoholic extract of S. hortensis contains compounds possessing antifungal properties. The alcoholic extract of S. hortensis showed antifungal activity against phytopathogenic fungi [ 49 ] and against food spoilage fungi [ 50 ].…”

Propolis efficacy on SARS-COV viruses: a review on antimicrobial activities and molecular simulations

“…Notably, propolis extracts in the study were highly effective to the fungal species than the bacterial counterparts (Petruzzi et al 2020 ). Kambiz et al ( 2013 ) reported that propolis extracts at a concentration of 0.125 g/L demonstrated effective anti-fungal activity against Aspergillus niger , which resulted in morphological changes on the cell membrane (Fig. 2D, E ).…”