Antimicrobial Activity of Five Medicinal Plants on Candida Albicans

In recent years, drug resistance to human pathogenic fungi has been increased. Medicinal plants are one way to overcome antibiotic resistance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antifungal and inhibitory activity of five medicinal plants on the growth of Candida albicans.
This study was done in the Microbiology Lab of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran in 2015. Five medicinal plants include: Trachyspermum ammi (seed), Teucrium polium (leaf), Piper nigrum (seed), Pistachia vera (skin), Camelia sinensis (leaf) were collected. Collected plant materials were extracted by ethanol and methanol solvent with maceration method. Antifungal activity of the ethanolic and methanolic extracts was evaluated by paper disc diffusion and agar well diffusion methods. Besides, MIC and MBC of each extract was determined.
All plant extracts had sufficient inhibitory effect against C. albicans but the extracts of P. vera had the best inhibitory effect on C. albicans (ZOI: 40 mm). The lowest antifungal effect between these five plants related to Piper nigrum (ZOI: 13 mm). Besides, the P. vera extracts had the best MIC and MBC values (6.25 and 12.5 mg/ml).
This study strongly evidence the maximum antimicrobial activity of medicinal plants against C. albicans that this inhibitory effect varies with the different solvent-extract form. A more comprehensive study need to identify the effective compounds that have these antifungal properties.