Antifungal activity of the essential oil of angelica major

Ref ID: 19432

Author:

E. Pinto,1 P. V. Souza,2 J. Pinto,2 M. J. Gonc alves,3 C. Cavaleiro3
and L. Salgueiro3

Author address:

1Faculty of Pharmacy, Porto, Portugal; 2Biological Sciences
Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Portugal
and 3CEF/Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Portugal

Full conference title:

6th Trends in Medical Mycology 2013

Date: 11 October 2014

Abstract:

Objectives In the last years, there has been an increase in the inci-
dence of fungal diseases, particularly among patients with impaired
immune systems. Also, the reduced number of available drugs and
the increasing resistance to classical antifungal compounds justifies
the research for efficient and economic therapeutic alternatives with
low side effects. Aromatic plants and their essential oils (EO) have
been traditionally used as antifungal agents. In the present work
we report the antifungal activity on a range of representative
human pathogenic yeast species of the EO of Angelica major from
Portugal.
Methods The EO of Angelica major obtained by hydrodistillation was
analysed by gas-chromatography and gas-chromatography/mass spec-
troscopy. The antifungal activity was evaluated against yeasts: eight
strains from six species of Candida (C. albicans ATCC, M1 and D5; C.
glabrata; C. parapsilosis; C. krusei; C. tropicalis and C. dubliniensis) and
Cryptococcus neoformans using the reference CLSI broth macrodilution
protocol M27-A3. Minimum fungicidal concentrations (MFCs) were
the lowest concentrations showing no growth after incubation of
20 mL samples from clear tubes in the macrodilution test in Sabou-
raud agar at 37°C. The influence of sub inhibitory concentrations of
the EO on the dimorphic transition in C. albicans was then studied.
Results The oil showed high percentages of a-pinene (21.8%) and
cis-b-ocymene (30.4%). Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs)
of the EO were dependent from the specie and the strain tested. MIC
values ranging from 2.5 to higher or equal to 10 lL.mL1 for Candida
strains and was 0.16 lL.mL1 for C. neoformans. However, its
major components, a-pinene and cis-b-ocymene, showed MIC values
lower, ranging from 0.08 to 1.25 lL.mL1 and from 0.16 to
1.25 lL.mL1, respectively. Furthermore, the a-pinene and cis-b-o-
cymene displayed a clear fungicidal activity, with MFCs equal to or
just one dilution above the respective MICs, including against iso-
lates with decreased susceptibility to commercial antimycotic drugs.
The EO also produces almost complete inhibition of filamentation
in C. albicans at concentrations as low as MIC/32. The major constit-
uents were also assayed and the activity of the EO is presumably due
to both the contribution of a-pinene and cis-b-ocymene, considering
that concentrations of 0.04-0.16 lL.mL1 inhibited almost com-
pletely the filamentation process.
Conclusions In addition to the antifungal activity of EO of Angelica
major against Candida spp., this work revealed an important inhibi-
tion of filamentation in C. albicans strains. This is interesting, since
filamentation has long been shown to be essential for virulence in C.
albicans and its inhibition alone appears to be sufficient to treat cand-
idosis. This data supporting the potential of the EO of Angelica major
for the clinical management of mucocutaneous candidiasis.
The authors are grateful to Fundac
~ao para a Ci^encia e a Tecnolo-
gia (FCT) through grants: PEst-OE/SAU/UI0177/2011; CEQUIMED-
PEst-OE/SAU/UI4040/2011.

Abstract Number: p260

Conference Year: 2013

Link to conference website: NULL

New link: NULL

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