Antifungal Evaluation of Aqueous and Ethanolic extract of Iranian Dandelion Root (Taraxacum peregrinium) in Comparison with Fluconazole and Nystatin

Dandelion (Taraxacum sp) is one of the valuable medicinal plants which its antifungal properties have been proven, but so far, no study has been done to investigate the antifungal effect of Taraxacum peregrinium, a native species of Iran. In this study, the effect of ethanolic and aqueous extracts of dandelion root on three species of Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger and Trichophyton rubrum were compared with fluconazole and nystatin, as antifungal drugs.

In this study, ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Iranian dandelion root were prepared. To evaluate the antifungal effect of dandelion root extracts and two standard antifungal drugs, fluconazole and nystatin, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was recorded by evaluating the growth rate of fungi using broth microdilution method, according to the light absorption obtained from spectrophotometer. At the end of the work, the data were analyzed by ANOVA test.

The results of this study showed that dandelion root ethanolic extract had inhibitory properties on all three studied fungal strains and showed the highest inhibitory effect on Candida albicans with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 150 µg/mL. The aqueous extract of dandelion root did not show any antifungal effect. Fluconazole and nystatin had a greater antifungal effect than ethanolic extract of dandelion root in all three fungal strains.

Due to the various therapeutic effects and no significant side effects, dandelion root can be used as an adjunct therapy in the treatment and control of various fungal infections. Therefore, it is suggested to identify and isolate the compounds in Taraxacum peregrinium and other species of dandelion native to Iran and to evaluate the identified components in terms of antifungal effect.