In vitro anti-fungal activity of few medicinal plants of Visakhapatnam region against clinically isolated dermatophytes

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the antifungal activity of methanol extracts of twenty plant species used in traditional Indian medicine against the clinically isolated fungi. The plants were selected on the basis of their reported ethnobotanical uses. The studies on plants of South Indian medicinal plants collected from regions of Visakhapatnam and were investigated against three clinical fungal isolates viz., Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Epidermophyton floccosum and Candida albicans using agar well diffusion method. The plant extracts were prepared using the solvent methanol. It is clear from the results that, the extract of twenty plants used in this study acts as a good source of antibiotics against various fungal pathogens tested and exhibited a broad spectrum of antifungal activity. The results of this study support the use of all the selected twenty medicinal plants to discover bioactive natural products that may serve as leads in the development of new pharmaceuticals that address unmet therapeutic needs.