Antimycotic efficiency of essential oils and ethanol extracts of some medicinal plants in Egypt

Youssef, Mohamed S.; Mohamed, Sabah Saber; Arafa, Rafaat F.; Hassane, Abdallah M.

doi:10.21608/jesj.2013.192887

Antimycotic efficiency of essential oils and ethanol extracts of some medicinal plants in Egypt

Document Type : High quality original papers

Authors

¹ Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Sohag University 82524, Sohag, Egypt.

² Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Assiut branch, Assiut, Egypt.

10.21608/jesj.2013.192887

Abstract

The antimycotic activity of essential oils and ethanol extracts of seven species of medicinal plants namely; garlic, galangal, cinnamon, eucalyptus, elecampane, basil and clove were assayed against the growth of five pathogenic fungi; Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, A. ostianus, Alternaria alternata and Fusarium solani in addition to Candida albicans (pathogenic yeast) by disc diffusion method. The results revealed that garlic essential oil had broad-spectrum activity against all tested fungi followed by clove, cinnamon, elecampane, basil, galangal and eucalyptus. Clove ethanol extract had broad-spectrum activity against all tested fungi followed by elecampane and cinnamon. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and qualitative phytochemical screening were carried out for the wide spectrum highly active antimycotic extracts. Garlic, cinnamon, elecampane and clove essential oils and cinnamon, elecampane and clove ethanol extracts were chosen to undergo the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determination and qualitative phytochemical screening. Both clove essential oil and ethanol extract, compared to the other extracts, exhibited the best antimycotic activity and lowest MIC in concentration.

Keywords