Abstract
The aim of this study is to investigate the Thymus vulgaris essential oil (TVEO) as an antifungal agent in aromatherapy and/or as an active ingredient in the prevention or management of topical inflammatory diseases. The chemical composition of TVEO was determined with gas chromatography and revealed the presence of 25 compounds. Carvacrol was found to be the major component (56.8%). Antifungal action of TVEO was determined in vitro by using different methods. By the disc diffusion method, TVEO showed more potent antifungal activity against Candida strains than the positive control. The diameter of inhibition zone (DIZ) varied from 34 to 60 mm for Candida yeasts. Significantly higher antifungal activity was observed in the vapor phase at lower quantities. Candida albicans and C. parapsilosis were the most susceptible strains to the oil vapor with DIZ varying from 35 to 90 mm. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of yeast were determined with an agar dilution method and revealed that MIC varied from 0.3 to 0.15 µL/mL for yeast species. The topical anti-inflammatory potential of TVEO was also explored in vivo with the croton oil-induced ear edema assay. TVEO exhibited a potent anti-inflammatory effect at all doses (100, 10 and 2 mg/kg), which were statistically similar (p > 0.05) to the positive control. This activity was also confirmed at the cellular level with histopathology analysis. Our results suggest the potential application of this carvacrol-rich TVEO in the prevention and management of fungal infections and topical inflammation and deserve further investigation for clinical applications. Furthermore, while the mode of action remains mainly undetermined and should be studied.
Highlights
The number of fungal infections has been increasing in recent years due to the increasing number of high-risk patients, immunocompromised hosts
We investigated the antifungal activity of Thymus vulgaris essential oil (TVEO) against 8 yeast species and 8 filamentous fungi isolated from recurrent mucocutaneous fungal infections in order to study the use of TVEO as an antifungal agent for skin diseases
We evaluated the major chemical composition of TVEO with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)
Summary
The number of fungal infections has been increasing in recent years due to the increasing number of high-risk patients, immunocompromised hosts. Microscopic fungi (molds) are omnipresent strains with a huge ability to colonize numerous kinds of substrates and to expand under extreme environmental situations. Molds and their airborne particles in the environment are known as probable contributory agents to a variety of diseases in humans: airway infections, irritation of respiratory mucous membranes, acute and chronic damage of respiratory organs and mycotoxicoses [3]. Despite the introduction of new antifungal treatments, they are restricted in number. The rise of fungal resistance to classical drugs, the high treatment costs, and the reality that most existing antifungal molecules have only fungistatic properties, are good reasons to explore novel strategies [4]
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