evaluation of the susceptibility of dermatophytes to garlic extract

introduction: in this study, we evaluated the activity of garlic extract against dermatophytes which is planned to be used instead of chemical durgs. garlic has been widely used as medicine since ancient times for varieties of illnesses, including abdominal pain, parasitic infection, insect and snakebites, hemorrhoid and rheumatism. in the last decades, garlic has been reported to display antibiotic and antifungi activities. material and methods: garlic was obtained from hamadan, iran. using the mantis method, dry garlic bulbs were peeled and homogenized with two parts of distilled water in a blender and liquid garlic extract was obtained. then the homogenized garlic extract was run through amicon diaf10 ultra-filtration system, using xm and pm membranes. the ultra-filtrated fractions were collected as residue (r) 300, 100, 50, 30, 10 and filtrate (f) 10. the fractions were evaluated by sds-page, using 14 percent acrylamide gel. serial dilutions of fraction from 1/2 up to 1/32 were tested against each dermatophyte in sabourauds dextrose agar and minimum inhibition concentration (mic) was obtained. the dermatophytes tested included: trichophyton mentagrophytes var. mentagrophytes, triochophyton mentagrophytes var. interdigitale, tricophyton rubrum, tricophyton tonsurans, microsporum canis, microsporum gypseum and epidermophyton floccosum. an ointment was prepared with fraction f10 as active ingrediant and was used for treatment of dermatophitosis of ginea pigs. results: the result showed that f10 inhibited growth of microsporum canis, epidermophyton floccosum, tricophyton rubrum, tricophyton tonsurans. mic 1/4 was active against microsporum gypseum and 1/2 against triochophyton mentagrophytes var, interdigitale. trichophyton mentagrophytes var. mentagrophytes was resistant to all dilutions. also the ointment used for treatment of dermatophitosis of guinea pig showed a statistically significant inverse relation between the severity and diameter of lesions and the duration of treatment conclusion: this research showed that f10 fraction, which contains nonprotein components, is the most effective treatment for dermatophitosis.