Antidermatophytic Activity of Essential Oils from Plants

Superficial mycoses are the strictly surface infections involving skin, hair, nails and mucosa. It is caused by dermatophytes that infect only keratin rich tissues without involving the living tissue and they are incapable of penetrating subcutaneous tissues. Ringworm or Dermatophytosis is found world-wide with most prevalence in hot climatic countries. Nowadays, the increasing impact of these infections, the limitations encountered in their treatment like antibiotic resistance, side-effects and high toxicity and the rising over prescription and overuse of conventional antifungals all stimulate a search for alternative natural drugs. In general, plant-derived essential oils are non-phytotoxic and potentially effective against all fungal pathogens & dermatophytes. They can be used as a natural therapy to inhibit the growth of these fungal pathogens. In recent years there has been a gradual revival of interest in the use of medicinal products such as essential oil and other botanical products in response to the ever increasing incidence of adverse side effects associated with conventional drugs, high cost medicines, long duration of treatment time and emergence of resistance to antifungal drugs especially in case of dermatophytosis.