Author:

Keywords:

Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Plant Sciences, Chemistry, Medicinal, Integrative & Complementary Medicine, Pharmacology & Pharmacy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Folk medicine, Ethnobotanical, Antifungal, Mycosis, Vaginitis, IN-VITRO, CHEMICAL-COMPOSITION, ENDOPHYTIC FUNGI, ESSENTIAL OILS, INHIBITION, ANTITUMOR, ROOTS, Antifungal Agents, Candida albicans, Medicine, Traditional, Microbial Sensitivity Tests, Plant Extracts, Plants, Medicinal, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, 0607 Plant Biology, 1104 Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 1115 Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Medicinal & Biomolecular Chemistry, 3214 Pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences, 4208 Traditional, complementary and integrative medicine

Abstract:

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: From over 100 Chinese clinical trial publications, we retrieved 22 commercial preparations and 17 clinical prescriptions used as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for treating mycotic vaginitis, typically caused by Candida albicans. The 8 most frequently used plants as well as another 7 TCM and 18 folk medicinal plants used in the South of China for antifungal therapy were investigated for in vitro antifungal activity. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of plants, whose clinical use for antifungal treatment are well supported within TCM or Chinese folk medicine, show in vitro antifungal activity against Candida albicans. Since Candida species represent the most common fungal pathogen of humans, these results provide more scientific evidence supporting the clinical application of these plants, and can serve as a starting point for new drug discovery from TCM and Chinese folk medicine.