The Open Natural Products Journal

2008, 1 : 27-33
Published online 2008 August 29. DOI: 10.2174/1874848100801010027
Publisher ID: TONPJ-1-27

Antifungal Properties of Some Mexican Medicinal Plants

Luz Maria Damián-Badillo , Rafael Salgado-Garciglia , Rosa Elisa Martínez-Muñoz and Mauro Manuel Martínez-Pacheco
Instituto de Investigaciones Quimico Biologicas, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Ed. B-1, Cd. Universitaria, Morelia, Michoacan, C.P. 58030, Mexico.

ABSTRACT

The antifungal properties of some extracts from Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt., Heliopsis longipes ‘A. Gray’ Blake., Satureja macrostema Benth. and Tagetes lucida Cav. were analyzed, using the agar disc diffusion method. After 72 h incubation, the plant extracts inhibited the growth of fungi, but the ethyl acetate and methanol-chloroform extracts from A. ludoviciana, H. longipes and T. lucida inhibited all the fungi assayed: Candida albicans, Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, Mucor circinelloides, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Sporothrix schenckii. The spore germination inhibition assay suggested that methanol-chloroform extract from A. ludoviciana was the most active against the fungi tested. The methanol-chloroform and ethyl acetate extracts from A. ludoviciana and T. lucida had pronounced antifungal activity against fungi tested. Compounds found in the leaves methanol-chloroform extracts from A. ludoviciana were analyzed by using GC/MS; the major compounds were: 1-8-cineole, camphor, borneol, cis-verbenol, myrtenol, eugenol, cariophyllene, α-farnesene, spathulenol, derivatives of caryophyllene and derivatives of spathulenol.

Keywords:

A. ludoviciana, H. longipes, S. macrostema.