title: The antifungal activity of Sarcococca saligna ethanol extract and its combination effect with fluconazole against different resistant Aspergillus species.
abstract: Microbial resistance is a major drawback in chemotherapy of microbial or fungal infection disease. In this study, the antifungal activity of ethanol extract of a selected plant (Sarcococca saligna) has been investigated against clinical isolates of Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus treus, Aspergillus flavus, and Aspergillus fumigatus. Also, the enhancement of the antifungal activity of fluconazole by this extract was further evaluated against mentioned test strains. Conventional disk diffusion method was used to assay the antifungal activity of S. saligna ethanol extract in the absence and presence of fluconazole. The highest antifungal activity was observed against A. treus. The ethanol extract of S. saligna enhanced the antifungal activity of fluconazole against A. niger and A. treus and A. flavus. At the highest tested contents (4 mg/disk), 1.15-, 0.64-, and 2.47-fold increases in inhibition zone surface area were observed for A. niger, A. treus, and A. flavus, respectively. However, no enhancing effect was observed for this plant extract against Aspergillus fumigates at tested contents (0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 4 mg/disk). In a separate experiment, the general cytotoxicity of the ethanol extract of S. saligna was examined with brine shrimp assay. This plant extract showed low cytotoxicity against Artemia salina (LC(50) = 186 microg/ml).
authors.affiliation: Student Scientific Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Kamyar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mollazadeh Moghaddam
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arfan
authors.forename: Jamal
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rafique
authors.forename: Sassan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rezaee
authors.forename: Parisa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jafari Fesharaki
authors.forename: Ahmad Reza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Gohari
authors.forename: Ahmad Reza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Shahverdi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000633:toxicity; D001156:Artemia / Q000187:drug effects; D001230:Aspergillus / Q000187:drug effects*; D031234:Buxaceae / Q000737:chemistry*; D052978:Disk Diffusion Antimicrobial Tests; D004347:Drug Interactions; D025141:Drug Resistance, Fungal / Q000187:drug effects*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000737:chemistry*; D015725:Fluconazole / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents; D010936:Plant Extracts; D000431:Ethanol; D015725:Fluconazole