K. MURUGAN, P. KAVIYARASI AND S. SARAVANA BABU
Abstract
Cassia auriculata. L . is a commonly growing plant as a natural weed in many parts of India. It has been widely used for curing skin infections, rheumatism, conjunctivitis, and diabetes in Indian folkloric tradition. Crude ethanol, acetone and water extracts of flowers of C. auriculata were tested for their anticandidial and an tiderma tophytic activity against Candida albicans isolated from AIDS oral thrush patients and the clinical isolates Epidermophytonfloccossum, Trichophyton men tagraphytes and Geotrichum candidum. The acetone and water extracts were found to be highly inhibitory towards the growth and germ tube formation of pathogenic C .albicans. The susceptibility pattern of the isolates C. albi cans were found to be sensitive to amphotericin (12mm) and itraconazole(20mm) and intermediate to fluconazole (12mm). The inhibitory actions exhibited by the extracts were comparable to the standard antibiotics. The growth and the mycelial formation of the dermatophytes E.floccossum, T. mentagraphytes and G. candidurn were more affected by acetone extract of the plant. Both the C. albi cans and the dermatophytes showed concentration dependent inhibition. The cell wall synthesis inhibition assay revealed the presence of antifungal cell wall active compound in the acetone extract. Based on the current findings, it can be concluded that further research on this plant could result in the discovery of novel cell wall active anti! ungal agent.