Antibiofilm activity of selected plant essential oils from the family against clinical isolates.

INTRODUCTION

The virulence of is conditioned by several virulence factors, one of which is the formation of biofilm which reduces the sensitivity of the yeast to conventional antimycotics. This study determines the antifungal and antibiofilm activity of five essential oils (EOs) of the family: , , , , and .

MATERIAL AND METHODS

In the preliminary research, the antifungal effect of eachof the EOs was tested in the concentration range of 200-0.4 mg/mL on planktonic () cells. A total of 13 clinical isolates and one reference strain were evaluated on biofilm formation.

RESULTS

Nine isolates (69.2%) showed weak biofilm production and four strains (30.8%) were detected as moderate biofilm producers. The EOs of and were seen as effective antifungal agents on planktonic cells with the MIC 0.4 mg/mL. The highest average MIC values were recorded in EO (24.0 and 14.8 mg/mL). All isolates were used to determine EOs efficacy on the inhibition of adherence phase and biofilm formation. The biofilm production of after exposition by EOs was quantitatively examined by crystal violet dye.

CONCLUSIONS

The most effective for adherence phase and biofilm formation were EOs of (0.1 mg/mL and 0.3 mg/mL) and Thymus vulgaris (0.1 mg/mL and 0.4 mg/mL). The obtained results show that EOs of and are potential agents for antifungal treatment or prophylaxis by reducing the resistance of pathogen.