Evaluation of the anti-Candida albicans and anti-Cryptococcus neoformans activity of the essential oils of three Moroccan medicinal plants

Abstract The results reported in this study provide new information about the antifungal activity of these medicinal plants and suggest their uses in the high incidence of fungal infections caused by Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans is due to several factors as resistance to antifungals, a fungistatic than the fungicidal effect of these drugs and the side effects of synthetic antifungals. Then, the search for new sources of molecules effective against pathogenic fungi is a major objective. In this context, the screening of antifungal activity of essential oils of three medicinal plants from Morocco ( Lavandula angustifolia, Salvia officinalis, and Rosmarinus officinalis ) has been carried out against C. albicans and C. neoformans , using Disk-diffusion assay and micro-dilution method. The essential oils are obtained by Hydrodistillation, the characterization of the most active essential oil was carried out by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results show that L. angustifolia essential oil is the only oil that showed strong fungicidal activity against C. neoformans and against C. albicans . The FTIR analysis of this oil showed the existence of several antifungal compounds, mainly linalool, linalyl acetate, terpinene-4-ol, carvacrol, and citral. S. officinalis essential oil has a fungicidal effect against C. neoformans , but a fungistatic effect against C. albicans . This activity is due to the presence of camphor, 1,8-cineole, and limonene. R. officinalis essential oil showed a fungistatic effect depending on its main chemical components, including eucalyptol, limonene, cymene, α-pinene, and camphor. The results reported in this study provide new information about the antifungal activity of these medicinal plants and suggests their uses in the extraction of active principle for the synthesis of new antifungal drugs.