Antifungal efficiency of three traditional medicinal plants against Trichophyton rubrum

Cutaneous fungal infection is a wide-spread public health concern affecting millions of people all across the world. Nearly half of the affected will experience multiple episodes of infection requiring numerous rounds of treatment. Trichophyton rubrum was the most common etiological agent of dermatophytes, and it is emerging as an important and significantly prevalent infection in an increasingly aging population and immune-compromised patients. Development of more effective and less toxic anti-fungal agents is required for the treatment of dermatophytosis. The aim of the study was to evaluate the anti-fungal activity of extracts of three plant species used in traditional medicine against Trichophyton rubrum. The ethanol and water extracts of Eucalyptus globules, Croton macrostachyus, and Phytolacca dodecandra leaves were evaluated in vitro for anti-fungal activity against Trichophyton rubrum, using the agar well diffusion technique. The mean inhibition zone of both extracts for E. globulus, C. macrostachyus and P. dodecandra were 19.8, 20, and 16.3 mm, respectively, and mean inhibition zone of the ethanol and water extracts were 23 and 14.4 mm, respectively. Generally, mean inhibition zone of plant extracts did not show statistically significant difference among plants and the mean inhibition zone of plant extracts did show statistically significant difference between extracts (P ≤ 0.05). On the basis of the current findings, Eucalyptus globules and Croton macrostachyus could be good candidates in the search for new antifungal agents from natural products against Trichophyton rubrum. Therefore, further studies are needed to study their toxicology and isolate the bio-active components from these plants.