Background: Many fungal infections are responsible for human skin damages, to control their negative action, some aromatic and medicinal plants
are traditionally used by local population in Cameroon. The present study was carried out to determine the chemical composition of essential oils of
Eugenia caryophylla and
Mentha sp cf piperita and their antifungal activity on some human pathogenic fungi.
Materials and Methods: Essential oils from
Eugenia caryophylla and
Mentha sp cf piperita were extracted by steam distillation using Clevenger
apparatus and the antifungal activity was evaluated on six human pathogenic fungal strains; two yeasts (
Candida albicans
1 and
Candida albicans 2)
and four dermatophytes (
Tricophyton rubrum
1,
T. rubrum 2,
T. violaceum, and
T. soudanensis) using modified broth microdilution method M27-A3
and M38-A respectively.
Results: The essential oils obtained yielded of 5.9 for
Eugenia caryophylla and 0.2%
Mentha sp cf piperita respectively. The chemical composition
was assigned by GC and GC/SM and showed that
E. caryophylla was mainly composed of eugenol (80.0 %), β-caryophyllene (8.3%), and eugenol
acetate (6.7%) while
Mentha sp cf piperita was characterized by piperitone (67.5 %), menthol (10.0 %) and β-phellandrene (5.8%). The result showed
that essential oil of
E. caryophylla exhibit the highest antifungal activity with MICs and MFC of 0.25μgL/mL and 0.125μgL/mL for filamentous fungi
and MIC of 0.5 μgL/mL for both yeast strains while MFC value was 1 μgL/mL for one yeast strain and not determined for the second. MFCs
Mentha sp
cf piperita essential oil showed a weak activity with a MIC of 2.5 μgL/mL on
Tricophyton
strains while no activity was exhibited on
Candida albicans
strains.
Conclusion: The results of this work can be used to confirm their traditional uses and can also be proposed as natural ingredients to some industries to
treat superficial infections.
