Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) affects around three-quarters of all women during their reproductive age, although the exact incidence of VVC is difficult to determine because many patients are self-treated. The infections are divided into complicated and uncomplicated. Uncomplicated VVC is most effectively treated with local azoles. Oral treatment with a single dose of fluconazole is also effective for treating uncomplicated VVC. Treatment of complicated VVC is prolonged and most commonly consists of multiple doses of oral fluconazole or at least 1 week of local azoles. The role of probiotics in treating VVC is still disputed. This article presents a review of the literature on the various treatment options for VVC. Treatment for the most common pathogens that cause complicated VVC is also discussed.

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This study presents an investigation of the anticancer and antimicrobial ability of a combination of ginger and cannabis extracts in different ratios (1:1, 7:3 and 3:7). Extracts were obtained using various methods (Soxhlet extractions, cold macerations, ultrasonic extractions and supercritical fluid extractions). The antioxidant activity and the presence of total phenols were measured in the extracts, and the effect of the application extracts in various concentrations (c = 50, 20, 10, 5, 1, 0.1, 0.01 mg/mL) on cells was investigated. Higher values of antioxidants were measured at the ratio where ginger was predominant, which is reflected in a higher concentration of total phenols. Depending on the polyphenol content, the extracts were most effective when prepared supercritically and ultrasonically. However, with respect to cell response, the ratio was shown to have no effect on inhibiting cancer cell division. The minimum concentration required to inhibit cancer cell growth was found to be 1 mg/mL. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis also confirmed the effectiveness of ultrasonic and supercritical fluid extraction, as their extracts reached higher cannabinoid contents. In both extractions, the cannabidiol (CBD) content was above 30% and the cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) content was above 45%. In the case of ultrasonic extraction, a higher quantity of cannabigerol (CBG) (5.75 ± 0.18) was detected, and in the case of supercritical fluid extraction, higher cannabichromene (CBC) (5.48 ± 0.13) content was detected, when compared to other extraction methods. The antimicrobial potential of extracts prepared with ultrasonic and supercritical extractions on three microorganisms (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans) was checked. Ginger and cannabis extract show better growth inhibition of microorganisms in cannabis-dominated ratios for gram-positive bacterium S. aureus, MIC = 9.38 mg/mL, for gram-negative bacterium E. coli, MIC > 37.5 mg/mL and for the C. albicans fungus MIC = 4.69 mg/mL. This suggests guidelines for further work: a 1: 1 ratio of ginger and hemp will be chosen in a combination with supercritical and ultrasonic extraction.

The variability of carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains (CRPA) isolated from urine and respiratory samples in a large microbiological laboratory, serving several health care settings, and from effluents of two wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) from the same region was assessed by PFGE typing and by resistance to 10 antibiotics. During the 12-month period altogether 213 carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa isolates were cultured and distributed into 65 pulsotypes and ten resistance profiles. For representatives of all 65 pulsotypes 49 different MLSTs were determined. Variability of clinical and environmental strains was comparable, 130 carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa obtained from 109 patients were distributed into 38 pulsotypes, while 83 isolates from WWTPs were classified into 31 pulsotypes. Only 9 pulsotypes were shared between two or more settings (hospital or WWTP). Ten MLST were determined for those prevalent pulsotypes, two of them (ST111 and ST235) are among most successful CRPA types worldwide. Clinical and environmental carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa strains differed in antibiotic resistance. The highest proportion of clinical isolates was resistant to piperacillin/tazobactam (52.3%) and ceftazidime (42.3%). The highest proportion of environmental isolates was resistant to ceftazidime (37.1%) and ciprofloxacin (35.5%). The majority of isolates was resistant only to imipenem and/or meropenem. Strains with additional resistances were distributed into nine different patterns. All of them included clinically relevant strains, while environmental strains showed only four additional different patterns.

Oregano (Origanum vulgare) is considered to be a good and cheap source of phenolic compounds with favorable biological activities, especially antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. Hypothesis/Purpose: The current work explored the optimization of the process conditions of solid–liquid extraction from Origanum vulgare to obtain extracts with high antimicrobial activity. We investigated which parameters promoted different efficiencies, leading to the maximum extraction of phenols and the consequent highest level of biological activity. Design-Expert Pro 11 was selected to design and analyze the experiments. The extracts were obtained by maceration as a simple method to recover value-added compounds from plant material, and supercritical fluid extraction was carried out as a green method with a high selectivity to obtain the compounds of interest. Pressure, temperature, and time were varied to obtain extracts with high antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. According to the results obtained using Design-Expert, the optimal conditions for maceration were at a temperature of 83 °C. The 1,1′-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrase method was used for the determination of antioxidant potential, while microdilution methods were used to determine the antimicrobial potential with regard to Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans. A level of antioxidant activity of 87.21% was achieved. Supercritical fluid extracts showed higher antioxidant activity at a higher temperature of 60 °C and higher pressure of 25 MPa, although the results at 40 °C and 25 MPa were similar. The lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values were 0.147 mg/mL for S. aureus, 0.728 mg/mL for E. coli, and 0.311 mg/mL for C. albicans. Overall, the optimal conditions for supercritical fluid extraction were 25 MPa and 40 °C. On the other hand, amounts of 0.208 mg/mL for S. aureus, 1.031 mg/mL for E. coli and 0.872 mg/mL for C. albicans were obtained using maceration. The MIC values of extracts obtained by supercritical fluid extraction were comparable to the minimum inhibitory concentration values obtained by different conventional techniques, such as those of Clevenger and Soxhlet.