Abstract
The essential oil of clove (Syzygium aromaticum) obtained by hydro-distillation (0.65%) was subjected to anti-candidal activity against vaginal and blood isolates of Candida albicans. Further the clove essential oil was analysed for its chemical components by GC-MS. Clove essential oil rendered the growth of all isolates of C. albicans, while most of isolates were resistant to flucanozole antibiotic. The inhibition of vaginal isolates of C. albicans by clove essential oil was found to be directly proportional to its concentration. Significant reduction in the growth of all isolates of C. albicans was observed at absolute concentration of clove essential oil as compared to the positive control (P≤0.05). The MIC and MFC values (1.25 μl/ml and 2.5 μl/ml respectively) was recorded for all C. albicans isolates except isolate no. 9, which had higher MIC (2.5 μl/ ml) and MFC (5.0 μl/ml) values than other. Clove essential oil also inhibited budding; it ranged from 23.7 to 42.9%. Results revealed that the clove essential oil completely inhibited the germ tube formation of isolates 1, 2 and 8 at 1/2 MIC, for rest the inhibition ranged from 7.7 to 3.2%. The GC-MS analysis of clove essential oil shows presence of five chemical components with eugenol (74.6%) as the major component. Other components were chavibetol (19.7%), caryophyllene (3.5%), trisiloxane,1,1,1,5,5,5-hexamethyl-3,3-bis [(trimethylsilyl)oxy] (1.7%) and caryophyllene oxide (0.5%). The results clearly showed that clove essential oil was more effective than the antimycotic synthetic antibiotic fluocanazol. Thus it can be explored further for the management C. albicans infections.