Efficacy of Two Commonly Used Antifungal Herbs in Nigeria Against Clinical Isolates of Fungi

Mitracarpus scaber and Ocimum gratissimum are used extensively in Nigerian herbal medicinal practice to treat many ailments especially those caused by fungi. In the current study, the antifungal activities of these two herbs against fungal isolates (moulds and yeast) recovered from subjects in the community were evaluated. Twenty species of moulds tested were isolated from 3 clinical samples including skin scrapping (n = 13), scalp (n = 4) and skin/scalp (n = 3) while 18 clinical isolates of Candida albicans were isolated from seven clinical samples including high vaginal swab (n = 8), sputum (n = 4), urine (n = 1), endocervical swab (n = 2), groin (n = 1), mouth thrush (n = 1) and palm (n = 1). Studies on the in vitro antifungal activity of the ethanol extract of Mitracarpus scaber (50 mu g mL super(-1)) and Ocimum gratissimum oil (50 mu g mL super(-1)) showed that the clinical isolates were sensitive to the herbal extracts but more sensitive to O. gratissimum oil extract (MIC range of 0.8-1.25 mu g mL super(-1)) than to ketoconazole (MIC range of 0.31-5.00 mu g mL super(-1)). The MIC ranges for sodium salicylate and aspirin were 0.75-1.60 and 7.81-31.25 mu g mL super(-1), respectively. The MFC results revealed that the O. gratissimum oil had greater biocidal effect against most of the tested organisms (MFC range of 0.156-2.5 mu g mL super(-1)), whereas the effect of ketoconazole against the tested organisms was biostatic (MFC range of 1.25-5.00 mu g mL super(-1)). Biocidal studies showed that the oil started to eliminate the organisms earlier than the ketoconazole. The study has confirmed the in vitro activity of these two extracts on the fungal isolates tested.