TITLE:
Lamiaceae Peppermint Oil with Surfactant Showing Equal Antifungal Activity against Candida albicans to Rosemary Chemotype CINEOL
AUTHORS:
Yusuke Matsuzaki, Yasuaki Kakinoki, Mari Nakamura, Tatsuji Nishihara, Toshiyuki Tsujisawa
KEYWORDS:
Essential Oil; Rosemary; Peppermint; Chemotype; Surfactant; Candida albicans
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Infectious Diseases,
Vol.4 No.1,
March
17,
2014
ABSTRACT: Oral candidiasis causes pain in oral cavity or
tongue. Antifungal drugs are commonly used for the treatment of candidiasis,
however, there could be several problems such as side effects, drug resistance, or contraindication to concomitant use with drugs
already taken. The development of substituting antimicrobial agents, which
could be used internally or as gargling agents, is expected. Some essential oils have been
known for the activities against microbes. We focused on the three chemotype
essential oils from rosemary and five essential oils from Lamiaceae plants
including rosemary, and examined their antifungal activity against Candida
albicans by broth microdilution method. The activity
with or without addition of Tween 80 or Tween 20 was statistically analyzed.
Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of the essential oils were
significantly decreased when either of the two surfactants was added. Among the
tested oils, only CAMPHOR, a rosemary chemotype, showed a significantly lower
MIC with addition of Tween 20 than Tween 80. It is inferred that the antifungal
activity of essential oils is influenced by the type of surfactants. Some of the
essential oils showed the same values of MIC and the minimal fungicidal
concentration (MFC) when surfactant was added. Peppermint showed the same MICs
and MFCs in most cases, and its low MFC indicated potent fungicidal activity
against C. albicans, as observed in
CINEOL. We will discuss peppermint oil as one of the potential candidates for
antifungal agents against C. albicans.