In-vitro Antifungal efficacy of Some Medicinal Plants

Abstract

The aims of the present study are to examine in-vitro antifungal activity of crude extracts of Sudanese medicinal plants against two fungal species in order to verify their possible inhibitory activity and to identify the bioactive compounds responsible for the observed activity. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and phytochemical screening were investigated for the most active extracts to detect the active group of secondary metabolites. Agar diffusion method was used to test their sensitivity. Chloroform, methanol and aqueous extracts of a total number of 23 plants belonging to 19 genera and 17 families were investigated against Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans. Among them, seven plant extracts showed efficacy against at least one of the two fungal cultures, and the methanol extracts of the different plants species exhibited a well marked antifungal activity. The bark methanolic extract of Terminalia arjuna (Combretaceae), gave the lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value (4.25 μg/ml) against C. albicans, whereas the stem methanolic extracts of Anogeissus schimperi (Combretaceae), gave the lowest MIC value (0.18 μg/ml) against S. cerevisiae.