TITLE:
Antifungal activity of chemotype essential oils from rosemary against Candida albicans
AUTHORS:
Yusuke Matsuzaki, Toshiyuki Tsujisawa, Tatsuji Nishihara, Mari Nakamura, Yasuaki Kakinoki
KEYWORDS:
Candida albicans; Essential Oil; Rosemary; Rosmarinus officinalis; Chemotype; Antifungal Activity
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Stomatology,
Vol.3 No.2,
May
28,
2013
ABSTRACT: Oral candidiasis is caused by Candida albicans. The symptoms including pain in the oral cavity
affect our eating function. While some antifungal agents are commonly used for
the treatment of candidiasis, occasional consumption of the effective dose
cannot be tolerated due to side effects. There is also a possibility of
induction of antifungal resistance, thus the development of replacement
agents has been awaited. We aim to explore antimicrobial activities of essential
oils. We evaluated the antifungal activities against C. albicans of essential oils from seven aromatic plants from
three manufacturers, and of three chemotype essential oils from rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis). As a result, we
found that the antifungal activity was increased several times by the addition
of Tween 80. All the tested essential oils showed stable antifungal activity,
however, the variation was observed among the manufacturers of rosemary and
eucalyptus. Rosemary has three chemotypes; CINEOL, CAMPHOR and VERBENON. They
derived from a same plant species, but contain different chemical components.
The CINEOL, dose-dependently decreased the number of C. albicans in the time-kill assay. Hence we concluded that the
components of rosemary essential oil would have an effect on its antifungal
activity. A chemotype is the first to consider in measuring antifungal
activities of rosemary oil.