Comparison of the Antifungal ‎effects of various extracts of aerial ‎part and root of Echium italicum ‎on Candida species with two ‎antibiotics Nystatin and ‎Fluconazole

Recently, due to increased Candida infection and frequent recurrence and due to the resistance of Candida species to most antifungal drugs, for the first time, antifungal properties of methanolic, n-hexane and aqueous extracts from different parts of Echium italicum were compared with antibiotics. In this study, methanol, n-hexane and aqueous extracts from different parts of the plant were prepared in different concentrations by soaking method And on two species of Candida glabrata and Candida tropicalis by disk diffusion method and MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration), MFC (minimum fungicidal concentration of growth) by micro dilution method. Antibiotics Nystatin and Fluconazole were used as a positive control and DMSO was used as a negative control. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and t-test. The results showed that different extracts from the root of the plant showed more antifungal activity than the aerial part of the plant against both species of Candida (P<0/05). The methanolic extract of the root showed the highest mean diameter of growth and the lowest MIC (15.62 μg/μl) and MFC (31.25 μg/μl) against Candida glabrata as inhibitory diameter of growth the methanolic extract in concentration of 5mg/ml (18.5±0.5) was higher than Nystatin antibiotic inhibitory diameter of growth for Candida glabrata. The results showed that the extracts of this plant have antifungal effects on both Candida species and after supplementary and clinical trials as an appropriate antifungal agent against Candida glabrata infection and Tropicalis infection.