ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY OF CINNAMALDEHYDE AGAINST CANDIDA ALBICANS.
Anek PootongBenja NorrapongSuwanna CowawintaweewatPublished in: The Southeast Asian journal of tropical medicine and public health (2018)
Candida albicans is a common pathogen, especially among immunocompromised
patients. It is beginning to show resistance against the azole drug
group, which is usually used to treat this pathogen. We studied the antifungal
effects of cinnamaldehyde against C. albicans. Germ tube formation of C. albicans
exposed to cinnamaldehyde was determined by the crystal violet based method.
The effect of cinnamaldehyde on adhesion of C. albicans to buccal epithelial cells
was investigated. Proteinase and phospholipase activities of C. albicans in the
presence of cinnamaldehyde were assessed using bovine serum albumin agar and
egg yolk agar, respectively. In this study, cinnamaldehyde possessed antifungal
activity against C. albicans with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 125 μg/ml.
At sub-inhibitory concentrations, cinnamaldehyde significantly reduced germ tube
formation, proteinase and phospholipase activities in a dose dependent manner
(p<0.01). Cinnamaldehyde also significantly inhibited the adhesion of C. albicans to
buccal epithelial cells (p<0.01). In our study, cinnamaldehyde had in vitro activity
against C. albicans and inhibited some of its virulence factors.