Research Article Anti-Trichophyton Activity of Protocatechuates and Their Synergism with Fluconazole

Copyright © 2014 Luciana Arantes Soares 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. Dermatophytosis and superficialmycosis are amajor global public health problem that affects 20–25%of theworld’s population.The increase in fungal resistance to the commercially available antifungal agents, in conjunction with the limited spectrum of action of such drugs, emphasises the need to develop new antifungal agents. Natural products are attractive prototypes for antifungal agents due to their broad spectrum of biological activities. This study aimed to verify the antifungal activity of protocatechuic acid, 3,4-diacetoxybenzoic, and fourteen alkyl protocatechuates (3,4-dihydroxybenzoates) against Trichophyton rubrum and Trichophyton mentagrophytes and to further assess their activities when combined with fluconazole. Susceptibility and synergism assays were conducted as described in M38-A2 (CLSI), with modifications. Three strains of Trichophyton rubrum and three strains of Trichophyton mentagrophytes were used in this work. The pentyl, hexyl, heptyl, octyl, nonyl, and decyl protocatechuates showe