Antifungal Properties of Malaysian Tualang Honey and Stingless Bee Propolis against Candida Albicans and Cryptococcus Neoformans

Abstract

Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans can cause life-threatening infections, especially in immunecompromised patients. Treatment with currently available antifungal agents may lead to severe side-effects and emergence of resistant strains. The objective of this study was to evaluate the antifungal properties of MTH and SBP against C. albicans and C. neoformans. Broth dilution method was used to assess the antifungal properties of the MTH and propolis. Different concentrations of the MTH and propolis (0.78 mg/mL -50.00 mg/mL) in two-fold dilutions were tested against each fungus to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) which was done by visual inspection and spectrophotometric (MIC95) reading at 620 nm. Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (MFC) was obtained by culturing on Sabouraud Dextrose Agar. Total phenolic acids and flavonoids contents were also determined by Folin-Ciocalteu and colorimetric assay respectively. The MICs of the MTH against C. albicans and C. neoformans by visual inspection were 6.25 mg/mL and 1.56 mg/mL respectively, meanwhile 6.25 mg/mL and 3.13 mg/mL by spectrophotometric reading. The MFCs of the MTH against C. albicans and C. neoformans were 12.50 mg/mL and 6.25 mg/mL respectively. The MICs of SBP against C. albicans and C. neoformans by visual inspection were both 1.56 mg/mL whereas spectrophotometric reading recorded MICs of 3.13 mg/mL and 1.56 mg/mL respectively. The MFCs of SBP against C. albicans was 6.25 mg/mL and 3.13 mg/mL for C. neoformans. The total phenolic acids and flavonoids contents of MTH were 275.6 mg gallic acid/kg and 71.8 mg quercetin/kg respectively whereas for SBP, the phenolic acids content was 1754.2 mg gallic acid/kg and the flavonoids content was 82.6 mg quercetin/kg. MTH and SBP exhibited significant antifungal activities against C. albicans and C. neoformans. Their antifungal activities might be attributed to the high phenolic acids and flavonoids. This result suggests that MTH and SBP could potentially be used as alternative therapeutic agents against these fungi.

In Vitro Biological Profiles and Chemical Contents of Ethanolic Nest Entrance Extracts of Thai Stingless Bees Tetrigona apicalis

“…These results showed that the eNEEs could inhibit both of the yeasts tested with narrow ranges of the concentrations but did not exhibit the killing effect of the eNEEs. It is consistent with the antifungal activity of some natural extracts, showing that it could inhibit yeast e.g., C. albicans (Freires et al, 2016;Shehu et al, 2016). Even though the disk diffusion method could not present any effect, the results from broth dilution methods is confidently reported that the eNEEs possessed the antifungal property, especially the anti-yeast effect.…”

“…Stingless bees' propolis from different countries has been characterized to have antimicrobial activities against S. aureus, E. coli, C. albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans and several Candida. (Lakshmi et al, 2014;Freires et al, 2016;Shehu et al, 2016). Some propolis and honey affect the proliferation of human cell lines (Pratsinis et al, 2010;Ahmed and Othman, 2013).…”

Antifungal and Antibacterial Effect of Propolis: A Comparative Hit for Food-Borne Pseudomonas, Enterobacteriaceae and Fungi

“…In another study [42], 5 mg/mL (5000 ppm) of ethanol extract of propolis completely inhibited the radial growth of F. oxysporum on solid media (PDA). Various compounds like phenolics and flavonoids are responsible for their antifungal activity by affecting the permeability of the cytoplasmic membrane, which leads to the total leakage of the cellular constituents such as nucleic acids, proteins and inorganic ions such as phosphate and potassium, leading to complete cell death [43].…”

Determination of optimum incubation time for formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus pyogenes biofilms in microtiter plate

“…P. aeruginosa and S. pyogenes inoculums prepared by picking up two to three morphologically identical colonies from stock culture which were then suspended in 10 mL of sterile Mueller Hinton broth in sterilized universal bottles. The inoculums were incubated at 37°C for 24 h (Shehu et al 2016).…”