ANTICANDIDAL ACTIVITY OF HYPERICUM ELONGATUM VAR. ELONGATUM ESSENTIAL OIL

The aim of this study was to evaluate anticandidal activity of H. elongatum L. var. elongatum essential oil against ten human pathogenic Candida strains. Aerial parts of Hypericum elongatum L. var. elongatum was hydrodistilled for 3 h using a Clevenger-type apparatus to produce essential oil in 0.2% yield. The oil was subsequently analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) systems simultaneously. Main constituents of the oil were identified as a-pinene (37.4%), (E)-beta-ocimene (23.6%) and beta-pinene (10%), respectively. The essential oil and its main constituents alpha-pinene, ocimene were evaluated for their anticandidal activity against by using partly modified CLSI M27-A2 in vitro broth microdilution method. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) results against tested strains between 31 to 1000 mu g/mL. Remarkably, the most susceptible strain was determined as C. tropicalis at 31 mu g/mL. H. elongatum var. elongatum essential oil is a promising natural mixture that is capable of inhibiting the growth of C. tropicalis in relative low concentrations.