Culture Methods versus Flow Cytometry for the Comparative Assessment of the Antifungal Activity of Eugenia Caryophyllata Thunb. (myrtaceae) Essential Oil

Opportunistic yeasts especially belonging to Candida sp. have been recognized lately as major fungal pathogens. Treatment of fungal infections, particularly nosocomial ones, has lagged behind bacterial chemotherapy and there are substantially fewer antifungal than antibacterial drugs due to the toxic side effects (fungi being eukaryotic cells similar in structure with the host cells) and to limited solutions for the development of new classes of antifungal agents. On the other hand, the lack of standardization and laborious available techniques led to an increasing interest for developing new rapid techniques for assessing the antifungal activity of different compounds. Our aim was to optimize a flow cytometry based method to test the antifungal susceptibility to essential oils, counting as a rapid method able to indications about presumptive action mechanism of essential oil from Eugenia caryophyllata dried buds (cloves). Rezumat Speciile de levuri aparţinând în special genului Candida sunt recunoscute ca patogeni oportunişti importanţi. În contextul soluţiilor terapeutice limitate pentru tratamentul infecţiilor fungice şi al absenţei standardizării metodelor de testare a sensibilităţii la substanţe antimicrobiene, scopul studiului de faţă a fost de a optimiza un protocol rapid şi reproductibil pentru determinarea activităţii antifungice a unor uleiuri volatile, utilizând tehnica citometriei în flux comparativ cu metodele microbiologice clasice. Rezultatele obţinute au demonstrat ca citometria în flux este o metodă rapidă pentru testarea sensibilităţii uleiurilor volatile la fungi şi poate oferi indicaţii cu privire la mecanismul de actiune prezumtiv al uleiului volatil din muguri uscaţi de Eugenia caryophyllata.