Estudo da associação entre o carvacrol e antifúngicos contra espécies de Candida não-albicans.

Abstract

The increase in the incidence of fungal infections caused by Candida spp., emergence of resistant strains to antifungal agents as well as the small number of available drugs, makes growing the need for new bioactive drugs. Essential oils and phytochemicals have been tested against fungi and shown to have potential antifungal activity. The association of antimicrobial substances can trace beneficial strategies to combat infections, seeking to promote greater effectiveness in the treatment, besides allowing the use of lower concentrations of each drug, or increasing the spectra of action and prevent resistant organisms. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between carvacrol and fluconazole, ketoconazole and amphotericin B against C. non-albicans strains. For this purpose, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of carvacrol, fluconazole, ketoconazole and amphotericin B against C. non-albicans was also investigated. The MIC it was determined by microdilution method and the study of association it was conducted by the Checkerboard. The carvacrol showed significant antifungal activity and the MIC varied between 512 and 128 μg/mL against the strains of tested. The antifungals showed interesting activity pattern, where the greatest activity was shown to ketoconazole, otherwise, the fluconazole showed lower antifungal activity against strains tested. Already the amphotericin B showed MIC’s ranging from 0.5 to 2 μg/mL. The best interactions were observed against C. guilliermondii LM-103 and C. parapsilosis ATCC 22019, what presented synergistic effects. Additive effect was observed in three associations, while indiferente interaction was shown in six associations. The carvacrol showed antifungal activity and the association between fitoconstituinte and antifungal agents showed synergistic results, additives and indifferent. However, antagonistic effect was not observed in this study.