Background:
Fungal infections have always remain a problem and they are getting worse with passage of each
year due to their resistance against available antibiotics. Natural ways of treatment with homoeopathic medicines made of
mother tinctures of plants have no reported side effects and have been proved effective against many bacterial and fungal infections.
Materials & Methods:
Preparation of mother tinctures of plants Cressa cretica, Leptadenia pyrotechnica and Pulicaria
crispa was done and used to evaluate the anti-fungal potential of these plants against potentially pathogenic fungal species
like Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus ustus and Candida albicans by agar disc diffusion method. Each tincture
was evaluated at 0.25 ml, 0.5 ml and 1 ml volume per disc and zone of inhibition was measured in millimetres and
compared with commercial drug Fluconazole (2 mg/ml) which was used as standard.
Results:
The results showed that satisfactory anti-fungal activity of these plants in comparison to standard drug Fluconazole.
The ratio of antifungal activity of Cressa cretica measured as the zone of growth inhibition of these cultures against Aspergillus
niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus ustus and Candida albicans was 24 mm / 27 mm, 30mm / 28 mm, 23 mm/ 30
mm and 32 mm/ 30 mm respectively. In the case of Leptadenia pyrotechnica, the mother tincture’s antifungal activity was
32 mm / 27 mm, 30 mm / 28 mm, 17 mm/ 30 mm and 24 mm/ 30 mm. In case of our third plant Pulicaria crispa, antifungal
activity came out to be 23 mm/ 27 mm, 26 mm/ 28 mm, 26 mm / 30 mm and 24 mm/ 30 mm.
Conclusion:
Our study proved that mother tincture of these plants can be a potential new therapy to treat fungal
infections and has the potential to rule out fungal problems. Further research using mother tincture of these plants
against other fungal species has the potential to prove them a safer and widespread anti-fungal homoeopathic
medicine.
Microwave Assisted Liquid Phase Synthesis of Benzimidazolo Benzothiophenes for Antimicrobial Activity