Abstract

BackgroundVaginal candidiasis is a frequent and common distressing disease affecting up to 75% of the women of fertile age; most of these women have recurrent episodes. Essential oils from aromatic plants have been shown to have antimicrobial and antifungal activities. This study was aimed at assessing the anti-fungal activity of essential oil from Mentha suaveolens (EOMS) in an experimental infection of vaginal candidiasis.MethodsThe in vitro and in vivo activity of EOMS was assessed. The in vitro activity was evaluated under standard CLSI methods, and the in vivo analysis was carried out by exploiting a novel, non-invasive model of vaginal candidiasis in mice based on an in vivo imaging technique.Differences between essential oil treated and saline treated mice were evaluated by the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-test. Viable count data from a time kill assay and yeast and hyphae survival test were compared using the Student's t-test (two-tailed).ResultsOur main findings were: i) EOMS shows potent candidastatic and candidacidal activity in an in vitro experimental system; ii) EOMS gives a degree of protection against vaginal candidiasis in an in vivo experimental system.ConclusionsThis study shows for the first time that the essential oil of a Moroccan plant Mentha suaveolens is candidastatic and candidacidal in vitro, and has a degree of anticandidal activity in a model of vaginal infection, as demonstrated in an in vivo monitoring imaging system. We conclude that our findings lay the ground for further, more extensive investigations to identify the active EOMS component(s), promising in the therapeutically problematic setting of chronic vaginal candidiasis in humans.

Highlights

  • Vaginal candidiasis is a frequent and common distressing disease affecting up to 75% of the women of fertile age; most of these women have recurrent episodes

  • Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Minimal Fungicidal Concentration (MFC) and Killing Kinetics The initial determination of the antifungal activity of essential oils (EOMS, TTO and JO) was performed in vitro by standardized CLSI/NCCLS methods[21] and this was done against all strains of C. albicans used throughout this study

  • The MFC values ranged from 0.39-1.56 g/L for essential oil from Mentha suaveolens (EOMS) and 1.56-6.24 for TTO, very close to MIC values

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Summary

Introduction

Vaginal candidiasis is a frequent and common distressing disease affecting up to 75% of the women of fertile age; most of these women have recurrent episodes. Essential oils from aromatic plants have been shown to have antimicrobial and antifungal activities. This study was aimed at assessing the anti-fungal activity of essential oil from Mentha suaveolens (EOMS) in an experimental infection of vaginal candidiasis. C. albicans is the etiological agent of vulvovaginal candidiasis, a common pathological condition, afflicting normal women of fertile age, which frequently develops into a chronic, substantially incurable, disease [3]. A number of EO have been tested for in vivo and in vitro antimycotic activity and some have been shown to be potential antifungal agents

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