Abstract
Poster session 1, September 21, 2022, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Objectives
The current study aimed to assess the anti-adherence and antifungal activities of thymol and carvacrol against Candida albicans, C. glabrata, and C. krusei isolates obtained from patients with oral candidiasis concerning growth inhibition and fungal death as compared to the synthetic antifungals such as fluconazole and voriconazole.
Methods
The susceptibility assay for the test compounds was performed using the disk diffusion method against all Candida isolates. Also, anti-adherence activity was examined using a rapid and highly reproducible 96 well microtiter-based method.
Results
Both natural phenols and antifungal drugs revealed various efficacies against studied Candida species. The susceptibility to fluconazole and voriconazole were 100% for C. albicans, 50% and 90% for C. glabrata, and 0% and 100% for C. krusei isolates, respectively. The mean diameter of the inhibition zone was greater for thymol than carvacrol in C. albicans (19.89-0.80 mm vs 17.05-0.61 mm), C. glabrata (18.87-0.71 mm vs 15.77-0.57 mm), and C. krusei (15.11-0.91 mm vs 13.91-1.04 mm) isolates tested.
Thymol showed more effective inhibition on adherence of all Candida species than other treatments. The mean relative adherence ratios for C. albicans, C. glabrata, and C. krusei were 0.50, 0.60, and 0.64, respectively.
Conclusions
This study demonstrated significant inhibitory properties of thymol and carvacrol on the adherence and growth of azole susceptible- and -resistant Candida isolates. Also, thymol was more effective for preventing the adherence of yeast cells to polystyrene in comparison to carvacrol.