Eugenol biologic activity in immunosuppressed rat females withCandida albicans genital infection: histocytological changes

Abstract

From our prior studies concerning eugenol's biologic activity we observed the very good in vitro antifungal efficiency of this natural compound. Those positive results generated the need to supplement the available information with a comparative in vivo animal model. In this context, our current study was proposed to ascertain and compare the effects of eugenol with nystatin with a placebo control group (saline solution) by evaluating the cytohistological alterations in immunosuppressed Wistar female rats genitally infected with Candida albicans. The observed histological alterations were most apparent in the placebo group. Candidiasis affected the liver, ovaries, kidneys, and spleen of the infected female rats. When compared to the groups treated with eugenol and nystatin, these alterations were either less discernible or were not reported at all, except for the liver degenerations, which were attributed to the immunosuppressive activity of drugs used and not to the Candida infection. The efficiency in the in vivo experimental candidiasis exerted by eugenol upon the tissues' histoarchitecture allows us to seriously consider it as a promising antifungal active substance, useful therapeutically in genital candidiasis and, in our opinion, with comparable biologic activity to that of nystatin.