Comparison of Antifungal Effect of Achillea Millefolium Extract with Miconazole 2% on Candida Albicans: An In Vitro Study

Oral infections induced by Candida species are widely increasing in frequency. One of the most common local treatments for candidiasis is miconazole which has antibacterial effect in addition to antifungal effect. Common antifungal treatments have several side effects and cause drug resistance and high recurrences rate. Thus finding a suitable solution as an alternative synthetic drugs seems logical. The aim of this study was to evaluate antifungal effect of Achillea millefolium extract on Candida Albicans growth in comparison with Miconazole.
For this laboratory study, aqueous and alcoholic extract of Achillea millefolium were produced by the method of Percolation, and six concentrations (10, 20, 30, 40, 70 and 100%) of each extract were prepared. Condida albicans was then cultured and on each plate, one plant extracts disc, one Miconazole disc, one Nystatin disc as positive control and one distilled water disc as negative controls were placed. After 48 hours, the mean diameter of non-growth halo of extract concentrations was compared with Miconazole discs by one-way ANOVA, t-student and Mann-whitney test (α=0.05).
The mean diameter of non-growth halo around the discs containing aqueous and alcoholic Achillea millefolium extract in all concentrations was less than Miconazole with a significant difference (P˂0.001).
The extracts of A. millefolium plant had no significant antifungal effect on Candida Albicans growth in comparison with Miconazole.