The Antifungal Efficacy of Pure Garlic, Onion, and Lemon Extracts Against Candida albicans

Abstract

Introduction:The oral cavity is considered to be one of the most intricate environments in the human body. It is known to harbor commensal microorganisms that do not cause diseases, such as Candida albicans, a yeast fungus that has a carriage rate that tends to increase with age. It is worth noting that C. albicans can be readily identified within the flora of the gastrointestinal tract in 80% of healthy patients. Traditional medicine has alternatively been shown to play a key role in various health amenities with a wide spectrum anti-microbial effect against various yeast molds.Objectives: To evaluate the antifungal efficacy of pure garlic, onion, and lemon juice extracts against C. albicans.Materials and methods: C. albicans (ATCC 10231) were sub-cultured in brain agar followed by anaerobic incubation for 48 hours at 37°C. Ten plates were used for each of the materials studied to evaluate their antifungal efficacy against C. albicans. The efficiency of commercially available fresh garlic, onion, and lemon was tested in isolation against C. albicans. One-way ANOVA and chi-square were used for comparison between the different materials. The inhibition zone was measured, and the level of statistical significance was set at ≤0.05.Results: The diameter of inhibition zones has been measured along the vertical and horizontal axis. No inhibition zones were observed for the onion and lemon extracts used in this study whereas the garlic extract exhibited inhibition zones with altered sizes (4.89 ± 0.275). A highly significant difference was observed between groups (P = 0.000) and between garlic and the other materials (P = 0.000).Conclusions: Pure garlic showed a highly significant antifungal efficacy when compared to the onion and lemon juice extracts against C. albicans. Further studies are needed using different concentrations of onion, lemon, and lemon peel juice to confirm their antifungal efficacy in addition to their actual antimicrobial benefits.

Natural Substances as Valuable Alternative for Improving Conventional Antifungal Chemotherapy: Lights and Shadows

“…It has been also reported that allicin and possibly other organosulfur compounds also act by inhibiting the quorum-sensing activity of fungal cells [69]. Pure garlic showed a marked antifungal efficacy when compared to onion and lemon juice extracts against C. albicans [47,67,69,70]. This indicates that allicin is more potent than limonene and other terpenes present in lemon extracts, and that garlic has a higher allicin content than onion.…”

“…It is obvious that there are a very high number of plant natural extracts currently known. Table 1 includes the most used in folk medicine from ancient times, but many others could be also added, as found at the bottom of the Table [46,60,69,70,[90][91][92]. Concerning other possible bioactive components with possible antifungal activity not described in previous oils, triterpenes deserve some comment due to the recent interest in this family.…”

Genes encoding γ‑glutamyl‑transpeptidases in the allicin biosynthetic pathway in garlic (Allium sativum)

“…Scientific research exploring the medicinal properties of garlic, focuses on allicin, diallyl sulfate and other diallyls ( 1 ). The Allium species, including garlic, contain sulfoxides with unique medicinal properties, including antioxidant ( 2 ), anti-cancer ( 3 ), anti-viral, anti-microbial ( 4 ) and anti-fungal properties ( 5 ), and have been used in the treatment of diabetes ( 6 , 7 ) and periodontal disease ( 8 , 9 ) and for potentially preventing cardiovascular ( 10-12 ) and neurodegenerative diseases ( 13 , 14 ). This great variety in therapeutic properties is the factor that has motivated such extensive research into garlic.…”