Anti-fungal activity of traditional spices against dermatophytes and opportunistic fungi. Comparison of combinatorial effects of clove, cinnamon and kacholam

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2020 in the subject Biology - Micro- and Molecular Biology, grade: A, Mahatma Gandhi University (St. Thomas College, Palai), language: English, abstract: The present study aims to determine the anti-fungal activity of combined and individual effect of Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum), Clove (Syzygium aromaticum) and Kacholam (Kaempferia galangal) against Candida albicans, Trichophyton rubrum, and Trichophyton mentagrophytes by agar well disc diffusion method. Extract from these spices showed remarkable antifungal activity against T. mentagrophytes, T. rubrum and C. albicans.

Clove exhibits significant antifungal activity against all the microorganisms tested. Cinnamon showed good inhibitory effect against T. mentagrophytes and C. albicans whereas kacholam showed an inhibitory effect against T. mentagrophytes and T. rubrum. Thus, the study concluded that individual effect of spices is better than the combinatorial effect against all the fungus tested.

Spices have been used as food and flavouring agent since the ancient times, and as a medicine in the recent decades. Now it is widely used across the globe as they possess great potential in the treatment of various diseases. It can serve as a better alternative to the modern synthetic drugs due to its lack of side effects and possible role in a wide range of therapeutic application.