Antidandruff activity of Cassia auriculata and Cassia alata through fatty acids mediated inhibition of Malassezia furfur

Abstract

Susceptibility of Malassezia furfur to certain medium chain fatty acids shed light onto novel strategies to control dandruff. This study explored antidandruff activity of the fatty acids and other bioactive compounds from flowers of Cassia auriculata and Cassia alata. The idea was supplementing the growth medium with fatty acids which are inhibitory to Malassezia so that plant-based antidandruff formulations could be developed based on the results. Chloroform and ethanolic flower extracts were tested there in vitro efficacy against M. furfur and the potential antidandruff compounds were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS). Minimum inhibitory concentrations were determined for both the extracts and IC50 values of 50 and 88 µM for chloroform extract of C. auriculata and C. alata were recorded. For ethanol extract, IC50 values of 75 and 70 µM were exhibited by C. auriculata and C. alata, respectively. Inhibition of M. furfur through fatty acids from Cassia is the first report, and it is possible to include specific fatty acids in the growth media to inhibit the growth of Malassezia which could be later served as lead molecules in antidandruff formulations. Further, the presence of citronellol, pinitol, anthracenedione and chrysine in Cassia flower extracts and their antidandruff activity reported in this study needed further research on those compounds to formulate effective treatment of Malassezia associated diseases.