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The Antifungal Activity of Sarcococca saligna Ethanol Extract and its Combination Effect with Fluconazole against Different Resistant Aspergillus Species

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Abstract

Microbial resistance is a major drawback in chemotherapy of microbial or fungal infection disease. In this study, the antifungal activity of ethanol extract of a selected plant (Sarcococca saligna) has been investigated against clinical isolates of Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus treus, Aspergillus flavus, and Aspergillus fumigatus. Also, the enhancement of the antifungal activity of fluconazole by this extract was further evaluated against mentioned test strains. Conventional disk diffusion method was used to assay the antifungal activity of S. saligna ethanol extract in the absence and presence of fluconazole. The highest antifungal activity was observed against A. treus. The ethanol extract of S. saligna enhanced the antifungal activity of fluconazole against A. niger and A. treus and A. flavus. At the highest tested contents (4 mg/disk), 1.15-, 0.64-, and 2.47-fold increases in inhibition zone surface area were observed for A. niger, A. treus, and A. flavus, respectively. However, no enhancing effect was observed for this plant extract against Aspergillus fumigates at tested contents (0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 4 mg/disk). In a separate experiment, the general cytotoxicity of the ethanol extract of S. saligna was examined with brine shrimp assay. This plant extract showed low cytotoxicity against Artemia salina (LC50 = 186 µg/ml).

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Acknowledgments

The biological experiments were supported by Medicinal Plants Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Tehran, Iran). Also, collection of plant and extraction procedures was supported by University of Peshawar and the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan, under its indigenous Ph.D. scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Student Scientific Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Kamyar Mollazadeh Moghaddam

  2. Institute of Chemical Sciences, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, 25120, Pakistan

    Mohammad Arfan & Jamal Rafique

  3. Department of Medical Mycology & Parasitology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Sassan Rezaee

  4. Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Biotechnology Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Parisa Jafari Fesharaki & Ahmad Reza Shahverdi

  5. Medicinal Plants Research Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Ahmad Reza Gohari

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  1. Kamyar Mollazadeh Moghaddam
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  2. Mohammad Arfan
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  3. Jamal Rafique
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  4. Sassan Rezaee
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  5. Parisa Jafari Fesharaki
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  6. Ahmad Reza Gohari
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  7. Ahmad Reza Shahverdi
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Correspondence to Mohammad Arfan or Ahmad Reza Shahverdi.

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Mollazadeh Moghaddam, K., Arfan, M., Rafique, J. et al. The Antifungal Activity of Sarcococca saligna Ethanol Extract and its Combination Effect with Fluconazole against Different Resistant Aspergillus Species. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 162, 127–133 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-009-8737-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-009-8737-2

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