ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Ghasem Rahimi1, Alireza Khodavandi2 , Ramin Jannesar3, Fahimeh Alizadeh2, Ramin Yaghobi4 and Abdolla Sadri5

1Young Researchers and Elite Club, Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran.
2Department of Microbiology, Yasouj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yasouj, Iran.
3Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Yasouj University of Medical Sciences, Yasuj, Iran.
4Shiraz Transplant Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
5Department of Microbiology, Jahrom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Jahrom, Iran.
J. Pure Appl. Microbiol. 2014, 8(6):4559-4564
© The Author(s). 2014
Received: 20/08/2014 | Accepted: 29/10/2014 | Published: 31/12/2014
Abstract

Infections caused by the opportunistic yeast Candida albicans has been increased dramatically in recent decades. Currently, the antifungal agents derived from plants have attracted considerable attention. Zataria multiflora is an herb that has antimicrobial and antifungal properties. In the present research, the antifungal effects of ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Zataria Multiflora herb evaluated against pathogenic yeast Candida albicans. The minimum inhibitory concentrations value (MIC) of ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Zataria multiflora was evaluated using broth microdilution test (CLSI-protocol). Time kill study was also performed to show the effect of antifungals tested to inhibit the growth of Candida by increasing-time. Eventually, MTT assay was carried out to investigate the biofilm-inhibitory potential of ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Zataria multiflora tested against Candida albicans. Our results showed that all extracts tested could be able to inhibit the growth of sessile Candida cells as well as biofilm formation, significantly (p £ 0.05). Indeed MICs were ranged from 0.85-1.50 mg/ml for ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Zataria multiflora, respectively. MTT results also showed the significant reduction of biofilm in Candida after treatment by extracts tested at level p £ 0.05. The results of this study revealed the fact that Candida albicans is sensitive to the Zataria multiflora and in the presence of this plant, the expression level of effective genes in biofilm synthesis could be reduced. Additionally, the ethanolic extracts of the Zataria multiflora was stronger than the aqueous extract in terms of antifungal activity.

Keywords

Candida albicans, biofilm, Zataria multiflora, aqueous extract, ethanol extract

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© The Author(s) 2014. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.