Bulletin USAMV-CN, 63/2007 ANTI-CANDIDA ACTIVITY OF SOME PLANT HYDROALCOHOLIC EXTRACTS

Medicinal plants have been used in developing countries as alternative treatments to health problems. Many plant extracts and essential oils isolated from plants have been shown to exert biological activity in vitro and in vivo, which justified research on traditional medicine focused on the characterization of antimicrobial activity of these plants (Martinez et al., 1996). Since plants produce a variety of compounds with antimicrobial properties, it is expected that screening programs for some under-represented targets, such as antifungal activity, may promote candidate compounds for developing new antimicrobial drugs (Ahmad and Beg, 2001). Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogen that can cause local and systemic infections affecting immunologically depressed patients and those undergoing prolonged antibiotic treatment (Zhang et al., 2002). Yet, the information available on plants, particularly medicinal plants, active against this yeast species has, until recently, not resulted in effective formulations for humans or animal use. In the present study, hydroethanolic extracts from 3 active medicinal plant specie