Inhibitory effect of some phytochemicals in the growth of yeasts potentially causing opportunistic infections

Abstract

Opportunistic infections caused by yeasts have been characterized as emerging diseases all over the world and this has caused the search for new products capable of inhibiting the survival of their etiological agents. In this study the sensitivity of some yeast potentially causing infections to α-pinene, β-pinene, citral and eugenol was evaluated. All phytochemicals showed inhibitory action on the assayed yeast strains: Candida. albicans, C. tropicalis, C. guilliermondii, C. stellatoidea, C. krusei, C. parapsilosis and Cryptococcus neoformans, presenting their MIC values in the range of 1 and 4%. The phytochemicals presented effectiveness to provide high fungicide effect in a short time. These data support the possible use of some phytochemicals as useful tools to control the occurrence of opportunistic infections caused by yeasts.

Inhibitory effect of beta-pinene, alpha-pinene and eugenol on the growth of potential infectious endocarditis causing Gram-positive bacteria

“…Gayoso et al (2004) and Lima et al (2005) found antimicrobial effectiveness of pinenes against moulds and pathogen yeasts providing a cidal effect between 2 and 5 hours of exposure. Hao et al (1998) reported antimicrobial activity of eugenol on Gram positive bacteria, including S. aureus strains.…”

“…Currently there has been an increasing interest in studying the biological properties of plant and derivatives in order to discover alternative biologically active compounds (Seidil, 2000;Araújo et al, 2004;Lima et al, 2005). Plant products have received a renewed interest in their use as alternative source of antimicrobial compounds because the uncontrolled use of the antimicrobial chemotherapy (Dorman, Deans, 2000).…”

Anti-Candida albicanseffectiveness of citral and investigation of mode of action

“…The activity of lemongrass oil is associated with the content of citral. Lima et al (2005) showed the antifungal action of citral against C. albicans, C. tropicalis, C. parapsilosis, C. stellatoidea, C. guilhermondii, C. krusei and Cryptococcus neoformans. Dellau et al (2008) demonstrated that citral has antibiofilm activities against C. albicans.…”

Biological Properties and Chemical Composition of Jatropha Neopauciflora Pax

“…This oil consists mainly of monoterpenes (Table 1). This activity may be attributed to the presence of -pinene (major component, 21.04%), which presents antiviral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and fungicidal activity by acting on cellular integrity, inhibiting the respiration and ion transport processes, and increasing membrane permeability (Lima et al, 2005). Additionally, a number of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes (camphene, spathulenol, linalool) have been shown to possess antimicrobial activities (Takikawa et The MeOH1 extract was obtained by exhaustive maceration, the purpose was to obtain all the compounds present in the plant.…”