Abstract
Dermatophytosis, which is caused mainly by genera of Trichophyton, Epidermophyton, and Microsporum, is a frequent dermatological problem in tropical and subtropical countries. Investigations were carried out in this study to evaluate the antidermatophytic activity of the stems, leaves, and seeds of Croton tiglium, one of the traditional medicine plants indigenous to Asia. Ethanolic extracts of the stems, leaves, and seeds of C. tiglium were prepared by cold soak or heat reflux methods. The antidermatophytic activities of the extracts were evaluated by disc diffusion and microdilution susceptibility assays against Trichophyton mentagrophytes, T. rubrum, and Epidermophyton floccosum. The active components in the extracts were analyzed and identified by GC-MS. All ethanolic extracts of C. tiglium showed some antifungal activities against the three dermatophytes. The ethanolic stem extract had the greatest inhibitory activities against T. mentagrophytes and E. floccosum with MICs at 0.16 mg/mL and had a lower activity against T. rubrum (MIC: 0.31 mg/mL). Oleic acid and hexadecanoic acid were found to be the major constituents in the stem extract that demonstrated strong antidermatophytic activities. The ethanolic extracts of stem or seed of C. tiglium exhibit strong antidermatophytic activities and, thus, could be considered for application on treating skin fungal infections after appropriate processing.
Highlights
Fungal infections of the skin and nails are common in humans and are caused mostly by dermatophytes
Three most common dermatophytes in Taiwan, that is, T. mentagrophytes, T. rubrum, and E. floccosum, were used for testing the antifungal activity of C. tiglium extracts in this study (Tables 1–3)
By using disc diffusion method, we demonstrated that both heat reflux and cold soak fractions of the ethanolic stem extract of C. tiglium had inhibitory activities against T. mentagrophytes (Table 1) and E. floccosum (Table 3) in a dose-dependent manner
Summary
Fungal infections of the skin and nails are common in humans and are caused mostly by dermatophytes. While the causative agents vary in species geographically, T. mentagrophytes, T. rubrum, and E. floccosum are the most common anthropophilic dermatophytes in Taiwan [2, 3]. Leaves, bark, and root of C. tiglium are used in traditional medicine to ease various illnesses, including dropsy, obstinate constipation, intestinal obstruction, lead poisoning, and high blood pressure [15]. Croton oil, prepared from the seeds of C. tiglium, was used to treat some skin diseases, including ringworm [21, 22].
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