Essential Oils of Lamiaceae Family Plants as Antifungals

The incidence of fungal infections has been steadily increasing in recent years. Systemic mycoses are characterized by the highest mortality. At the same time, the frequency of infections caused by drug-resistant strains and new pathogens e.g., <i>Candida auris</i> increases. An alternat...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tomasz M. Karpiński
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-01-01
Series:Biomolecules
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2218-273X/10/1/103
Description
Summary:The incidence of fungal infections has been steadily increasing in recent years. Systemic mycoses are characterized by the highest mortality. At the same time, the frequency of infections caused by drug-resistant strains and new pathogens e.g., <i>Candida auris</i> increases. An alternative to medicines may be essential oils, which can have a broad antimicrobial spectrum. Rich in the essential oils are plants from the Lamiaceae family. In this review are presented antifungal activities of essential oils from 72 Lamiaceae plants. More than half of these have good activity (minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) &lt; 1000 &#181;g/mL) against fungi. The best activity (MICs &lt; 100) have essential oils from some species of the genera <i>Clinopodium</i>, <i>Lavandula</i>, <i>Mentha</i>, <i>Thymbra</i>, and <i>Thymus</i>. In some cases were observed significant discrepancies between different studies. In the review are also shown the most important compounds of described essential oils. To the chemical components most commonly found as the main ingredients include &#946;-caryophyllene (41 plants), linalool (27 plants), limonene (26), &#946;-pinene (25), 1,8-cineole (22), carvacrol (21), &#945;-pinene (21), p-cymene (20), &#947;-terpinene (20), and thymol (20).
ISSN:2218-273X