Antifungal Activity of Thymus vulgaris L. and Origanum vulgare L. Against Fluconazol-Resistant and Susceptible Candida albicans Isolates

In recent years, systemic fungal infections due to Candida species have been received major consideration about inducing mortality in nosocomial patient's because of increasing in immunocompromised disorders such as AIDS and hematological disorders as well as long term use of broad spectrum antibiotics and corticosteroids.Wide range use of antifungal agents specially azole compounds in treatment of sever Candidiasis has resulted in fungal resistance in Candida species, there fore, it is necessary to use antifungal susceptibility tests before selecting a suitable drug for such above mentioned infections which can resulted in the decrease in secondary drug resistance and better manipulation of treatment protocols. The present study was done with the aim of evaluating antifungal effects of a aqueous and essential oils prepared from Thymus vulgaris and Origanum vulgare against fluconazole (FLZ) susceptible and Fluconazole resistance Candida albicans strains isolated from different types of Candida using standard drug susceptibility tests. Evaluation of FLZ susceptibility of C. albicans strains by disk diffusion method showed 26 (78 %), 4 (12.1 %) and 3 (9.9 %) isolates were susceptible, dose – dependence and resistant, respectively.Aqueous and essential oils from both Thymums vulgaris and Origanum vulgare showed inhibitory effects on growth of FLZ-susceptible C. albicans isolates, where as, only essential oils from Thymus vulgaris were found to be able to inhibit growth of FLZ-resistant C. albicans isolates.Resultrs: These resultrs show that there is a direct relationship between FLZ resistance and resistance to both thymus and Origanum in C.albicans.Thus, it is seems that these two plants could inbibit C. albicans growth by a similar mechanism which occure by FLZ. In general, the results obtained in this study indicate that both thymus vulgaris and Origanim vulgare have potential values for growth inhibition of C. albicans in vitro.