title: Antifungal activity of essential oils from Iranian plants against fluconazole-resistant and fluconazole-susceptible Candida albicans.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to assay the antifungal activity of selected essential oils obtained from plants against both fluconazole (FLU)-resistant and FLU-susceptible C. albicans strains isolated from HIV positive patients with oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC).
  
  
  METHODS
  The essential oils were obtained by hydrodistillation method from Myrtus communis (My. communis), Zingiber officinale roscoe (Z. officinale roscoe), Matricaria chamomilla (Ma. chamomilla), Trachyspermum ammi (T. ammi) and Origanum vulgare (O. vulgare). The susceptibility test was based on the M27-A2 methodology. The chemical compositions of the essential oils were obtained by gas chromatography- mass spectroscopy (GC-MS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In GC-MS analysis, thymol (63.40%), linalool (42%), α-pinene (27.87%), α-pinene (22.10%), and zingiberene (31.79%) were found to be the major components of T. ammi, O. vulgare, My. communis, Ma. chamomilla and Z. officinale roscoe, respectively. The results showed that essential oils have different levels of antifungal activity. O. vulgare and T. ammi essential oils were found to be the most efficient (P<0.05). The main finding was that the susceptibilities of FLU-resistant C. albicans to essential oils were higher than those of the FLU-susceptible yeasts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results of this study indicated that the oils from medicinal plants could be used as potential anti FLU-resistant C. albicans agents.
authors.affiliation: Mycology Research Center, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Aghil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharifzadeh
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Amol University of Special Modern Technologies, Amol, Iran.
authors.forename: Hojjatollah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shokri
keywords: Candida albicans; Essential oils; Fluconazole-resistant isolates; Oral candidiasis; Origanum vulgare