Abstract

IN VITRO SUSCEPTIBILTY OF CLINICAL ISOLATES OF CANDIDA ALBICANS TO EXTRACTS FROM CASSYTHA FILIFORMIS

ABSTRACT

The anticandidal potentials of extracts from the aerial parts of Cassytha filiformis were evaluated against some strains of Candida albicans isolated from clinical specimens. The plant parts were collected fresh, shade-dried, pulverized and extracted with hot water, methanol and nhexane. Hot-water extraction was by 24 h maceration while extraction with methanol and n-hexane was done in a Soxhlet apparatus. The extracts were concentrated and dried separately under vacuum. Preliminary antimicrobial screening of these extracts was carried out using agar-well diffusion techniques. Nystatin (Nilstat R) was used as reference standard antifungal antibiotic. The minimum inhibitory concentrations(MICs) of the extracts and the standard reference antibiotic were determined using agar dilution technique. The results of the inhibition zone diameters (IZD) showed that the anticandidal activities of this plant were concentration dependent, with the respective mean IZDs at 30.00 mg/ml and 1.88 mg/ml concentrations as 20.23 ± 0.22 mm and 1.05 ± 0.239 mm ( for water extract), 21.21 ± 0.25 mm and 2.69 ± 0.78 mm (for methanol extract), 19.43 ± 0.23 mm and 1.89 ± 0.57mm (for n-Hexane extract) and the respective mean MIC values are 9.06 ± 0.053 mg/ml (methanol extract), 8.39 ± 0.38 mg/ml (hot water extract), 14.79 ± 0.81 mg/ml (n-Hexane), and 1.89 ± 0.09 mg/ml (nystatin). Thus the current study leads to a source of new anticandidal agent in future. The result suggests that Cassytha filiformis is a potential candidate plant for future exploration in pharmaceutical microbiology.

Keywords: Anticandidal activity, Cassytha filiformis, Nystatin ,Candida albicans, MIC, IZD.