The cumulative estimate for the number of people affected by Fungal pathogens annually is over a billion (Brown et al., 2024). They pose an immediate threat to human health by causing life-threatening infections and destroying crops. Fungal pathogens significantly impact agriculture due to limited options for antifungal agents, creating a strong selection pressure for antifungal resistance (Fisher et al., 2024; Oliver and Hewitt, 2014). If left unchecked, antifungal resistance can cause major crop losses, which could be disastrous in developing countries where crops can provide up to 50% of an individual’s caloric intake (Brauer et al, 2019; FAO, 2024). To combat this, novel fungicides are necessary. One option to develop and or discover novel fungicides is to utilise naturally produced defences, e.g. plant secretions. To screen some of these natural defences, extracts of 14 plant species were made up and tested against Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The four best performing extracts were, Pak choi, garlic, tomato, and strawberry. For these four extracts further analysis into the potential bioactive compounds could be used as starting points for developing novel fungicides.
Stuart et al. (Thu,) studied this question.