Research Article Effects of Mentha suaveolens Essential Oil Alone or

Copyright © 2014 Annarita Stringaro et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Candidosis is the most important cause of fungal infections in humans. The yeast Candida albicans can form biofilms, and it is known that microbial biofilms play an important role in human diseases and are very difficult to treat. The prolonged treatment with drugs has often resulted in failure and resistance. Due to the emergence of multidrug resistance, alternatives to conventional antimicrobial therapy are needed.This study aims to analyse the effects induced by essential oil ofMentha suaveolens Ehrh (EOMS) on Candida albicans and its potential synergism when used in combination with conventional drugs. Morphological differences between control and EOMS treated yeast cells or biofilmswere observed by scanning electronmicroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM resp.,). In order to reveal the presence of cell cycle alterations, flow cytometry analysis was carried out as well. The synergic action of EOMS was studied with the checkerboard method, and the cellular damage induced by differen