Aims: The main purpose of this work was to evaluate the in vitro activity of ajoene of the Candida, obtained from vaginal discharges.
Methods: For this, 136 samples were analyzed. The yeasts were recovered and identified by conventional mycological methods. The susceptibility to ajoene (at 20, 15, 12.5, 10, 6.25 and 3.125 microg/ml) was performed according to the CLSI M27-A2 document with the EUCAST modifications. The ATCC reference strains 90028 (Candida albicans), 22019 (Candida parapsilosis), and 6258 (Candida krusei) were included in this study. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was considered as the minimal concentration of ajoena able to inhibit 80% of the fungal growth.
Results: Fifty five yeasts were recovered, 36 (65.4%) of them were causing candidosis and 19 (34.5%) were colonizing. C. albicans was the most frequent (81.8%) of the six isolated species, prevailing on the patients with candidosis (54.5%). The non-albicans species were less frequently isolated (18.2%), and Candida glabrata was the prevailing agent (7.3%) followed by Candida tropicalis (3.6%), C. krusei, C. parapsilosis, Candida guilliermondii and Candida sp. (1.8% each of them). The susceptibility tests to ajoeno showed inhibition of fungal growth in 98.2% of the isolates, showing MIC values 15 microg/ml, and in (one isolate of C. glabrata) (1.8%) this value was >20 microg/ml. The reference strains showed MIC values of 3.125 and 10 microg/ml.
Conclusions: The results here presented, obtained from a significant number of isolates, mainly C. albicans, demonstrate, once more, the potential of ajoeno as an antifungal agent.