Antifungal efficacy of Taxodium and Mentha oils against some human pathogenic fungi

Abstract

During antifungal screening of essential oils of some higher plants against human pathogenic fungi, oils of Mentha spicata (L.) and Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich. exhibited significant activity against the test pathogens Epidermophyton floccosum (Harz) Langeron and Milochevitch, Microsporum gypseum (Bodin.) Guiart and Gregoraki and Microsporum nanum Fuentes. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the oil of M. spicata were found to be 1.8 µl/ml for E. floccosum, M. gypseum and M. nanum. In the case of T. distichum the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were found to be 2.0 µl/ml for M. gypseum and 2.5 µl/ml for E. floccosum and M. nanum. The oils also exhibited potency against heavy doses of inoculum (30 mycelial discs, each 5 mm in diameter) at these MICs concentrations. On comparison with the synthetic antifungal drugs myconazole and ketaconazole, these oils were found to be more effective.

Phytochemistry and anti-microbial evaluation of Thaumatococcus danielli, Benn. (Benth.) leaves

“…There is need for comprehensive analysis of the components of this oil and possibly propose uses for it, once its composition, tolerance, toxicity, etc are known, since a lot of oil bearing plants are known to have medicinal potentials, including antimicrobial potentials (Du Pork, 2006, Moronkola et al, 2003, Pandey et al, 2002, while some others serve as starting materials for the production of body care products like lotions, soaps, etc. (Kasali et al, 2002).…”