In vitro synergistic efficacy of combination of amphotericin B with Myrtus communis essential oil against clinical isolates of Candida albicans

In this study, we evaluated the antifungal activity of the essential oil from Myrtus communis (myrtle) leaves against Candida albicans (eight clinical isolates and one ATCC type strains) and different species of Aspergillus sp (A. niger, A. parasiticus, six isolates of Aspergillus flavus) using broth micro dilution assay. In addition, we evaluated the synergistic effect between the essential oil and the antifungal compound amphotericin B by checkboard micro titer assay. The essential oil was obtained from myrtle leaves by hydrodistillation method and the oil was analyzed by GC and GC-MS methods. Chemical analysis of oil revealed the presence of 70 components, representing 99.23% of the total oil. 1,8-cineole (36.1%), alpha-pinene (22.5%), linalool (8.4%), bornyl acetate (5.2%), alpha-terpineol (4.4%), linalyl acetate (4.2%) and limonene (3.8%) were found to be the major components of the oil. The antifungal evaluating showed that myrtle oil exhibited good antifungal activity against fungi. Myrtle oil showed significant antifungal activity when combined with amphotericin B.