The essential oil and the aqueous, hexane and methanolic fractions from
Hyptis ovalifolia
leaves were evaluated for their antifungal activity in vitro against 60 strains of dermatophytes: 10 strains of
Microsporum canis
, 10 of
M. gypseum, 20 of
Trichophyton rubrum
and 20 of
T. mentagrophytes. The extracts inhibited growth of the dermatophytes tested at different concentrations. The most biologically active was the essential oil from the leaves which inhibited 57 isolates (95%) at a concentration of ≤ 500 μg/ml.
