Antifungal Activity of Lavandula Angustifolia and Quergues Infectoria Extracts in Comparison with Nystatin on Candida Albicans

Introduction & Nowadays,herbal extracts are used to treat diseases, especially infectious ones. Candida albicans is the most common causes of oral opportunistic infections.In this study, antifungal effects of two herbal extracts were evaluated on an oral pathogen i.e. Candida albicans.
In this descriptive- analytic study, the Department of Prosthodontics, ,Tehran University of Medical Sciences, school of Dentistry the oral samples of 25 patients with denture stomatitis were collected using sterile swabs. Then the isolated candida albicans and standard candida albicans PTCC 5027 were cultured. The antifungal effect was evaluated with disk plate method. Nystatin and methanol were used as positive and negative control groups, respectively. The power of antifungal activity was evaluated with the inhibition zone diameter of each of the extracts. At the end, the data were analyzed by ANOVA and Friedman statistical tests.
Results showed that extracts of Querques infectoria had great antifungal effects. There was not statistically significant difference between nystatine and Querques infectoria extract (P>0.05) however , Querques infectoria was statistically more effective than lavender extract and nystatin showed the highest antifungal activity (P This study showed that plant extracts had positive effects on Candida albicans as compared to nystatin. Thus, we hope to find new herbal medicines and compounds to treat candidiasis in the future.