Plant essential oils with promising antifungal activity

To establish therapeutic efficacy of Tagetes minuta extracts.

Laboratory-based experiment.

In vitro fungitoxicity test of essential oils was studied on Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Microsportum gypsum, Candida albicans ATCC 10231, Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus niger and Penicillium species. The effect of oil on sporulation, budding and germination of fungal conidia was studied. The lowest active concentration (lac) was determined and compared with that of one per cent clotrimazole and one per cent nystatin.

T. minuta essential oils were more effective on filamentous fungi than the standard antifungal drugs (p<0.05) but was less active on the yeast. It was fungicidal on filamentous forms of fungi and fungistatic on the yeast. The activity of the flower oil was significantly higher than that of the leaves (p=0.015). The oil significantly inhibited conidia germination but had no effects on budding of yeast. Gas chromatograph analysis of the oil showed a total of 30 compounds with five major peaks.

The fungitoxicity of T. minuta oil can be exploited for its antifungal properties if toxicity and the active compound is studied further.