Antifungal effect of 7-hydroxycitronellal against C. Tropicalis strains: an in vitro approach

Abstract

The fungi of the genus Candida play a relevant role in the emergence of oral infections and are increasingly more frequent the cases of infections by non-albicans strains. In light of this context and the need for new alternatives to the antimicrobial therapy, the monoterpene [7-hidroxicitronelal] (7-HO) was evaluated for its antifungal effects. For the obtainment of the MIC and MFC values the broth microdilution method was used. The MIC and the MFC of this monoterpene for 60% of the tested strains was of 256µg/mL and 512µg/mL respectively. Furthermore, the standard antifungal nystatin (100UI/mL) was used as positive control for the inhibition of fungal growth. Therefore, were used 4 clinical strains of the species tropicalis (LM 06, LM 14, LM 31 and LM 36) and a standard strain (C. tropicalis ATCC 13803), originated from the Mycology collection of the Mycology Laboratory (LM) of the Health Sciences Center (CCS) of the Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB). The results obtained in this study showed fungicide activity of the compound (7-OH) against the strains of C. tropicalis.