Lavandula angustifolia Essential Oils as Effective Enhancers of Fluconazole Antifungal Activity against Candida albicans

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of Candida albicans resistance to commercial antifungal agents in recent decades has prompted modern medicine and veterinary medicine to search for combined treatment options. The aim of the study was to determine the activity of essential oils from different cultivars and morphological parts of the medicinal lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) in combination with fluconazole against Candida albicans ATCC 10231 strain. The effect of the combination of lavender essential oil with fluconazole was tested using the checkerboard method, and the obtained results were interpreted on the basis of fractional inhibitory concentration indices (FICIs). A synergistic interaction was found for all combinations of fluconazole with essential oils isolated both from flowers and leafy stalks of two tested lavender cultivars: ‘Blue River’ and ‘Ellagance Purple’. The observed enhancement effect of fluconazole antifungal activity was significantly stronger in the case of essential oils obtained from flowers and leafy stalks of ‘Blue River’ cultivar. Analogous studies were performed for linalool, one of the main components of lavender essential oils, and a similar synergistic interaction with fluconazole was found.

Evaluation of the Antibacterial Activity of Gentamicin in Combination with Essential Oils Isolated from Different Cultivars and Morphological Parts of Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.) against Selected Bacterial Strains

“…The chemical composition of lavender essential oils was presented in our previous publication [29]. The main chemical components detected in the essential oils from the flowers of L. angustifolia were linalyl acetate (17.8-31.0%) and linalool (28.5-33.0%), while lavandulol acetate, borneol and caryophyllene oxide were present in lower concentrations (<5%).…”

“…After storage in the refrigerator for 24 h, the drying agent was removed by filtration and the solvent was evaporated to obtain a pure essential oil. All isolated essential oils were analyzed using gas chromatography with mass selective detector (GC-MS), what was described previously [29]. (See Supplementary Materials for details).…”

Biological activities and chemical characterization of Lavandula angustifolia essential oil from Seraïdi, Northeastern Algeria

“…In general, the amounts of EO produced by the plants are generally below 2% (Boukhatem et al 2019), which is similar to the results in this study. Previous studies (Carrasco et al 2015;Tardugno et al 2018;and Adaszyńska-Skwirzyńska et al 2023) reported that the yields of lavender EO were 1.5%, 1.67%, and 1.92%, respectively. Similarly, Elharas et al (2013) reported that Moroccan lavender yields 1.5% lavender EO.…”

Formulation and Evaluation of Calendula and Lavender Oil Based Topical Antifungal Gel

“…"As a dispersion media, the solvent might be an aqueous, organic, inorganic, or a combination of solvents" [9,10,11, 11a,11b,11c]. "Topical gels are applied to the skin to act as a contact or transport medium for active medications" [12,13,14,15]. The gel's three-dimensional mesh entangles the active drug molecules.…”