Volume 163, 2 April 2015, Pages 88–93
Abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance
A
series of 40 important Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs), which were
reported effective in treating superficial fungal infections of the
skin in Chinese clinical trial publications and Chinese Herbal Classics,
were chosen for the investigation of the individual and combination
antifungal properties against 8 superficial fungal strains in vitro.
Materials and methods
Plant
preparations were followed the theory of TCM by using sterile water
boiled with plant material at 100 °C to produce water decoction of the
tested sample. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of each plant
for each fungus was determined. For the compatibility investigation,
both invariable (same amounts of each tested TCM) and variable
(different amounts of each tested TCM) combinations were evaluated.
Results
All
the tested TCMs demonstrated varying degrees of antifungal activities
against one or more of the tested superficial fungi, and 16 of which
were effective on all of the fungi. Strong antifungal activities were
exhibited by water decoction of 7 TCMs with MIC at about 100 μg/ml, and
among these effective antifungal extracts, 4 TCMs including Melaphis chinensis, Polygonum cuspidatum, Punica granatum and Schisandra chinensis
showed the significantly inhibitory activities against all of the fungi
with MICs among 50 μg/ml. Most of the invariable combinations of the
above-mentioned 4 TCMs showed synergic effects against 4 of the least
susceptible fungi strains, especially the invariable combination of Punica granatum, Melaphis chinensis and Schisandra chinensis,
with the MIC at 23.4 μg/ml. However, their further variable
combinations investigation demonstrated that only the combination of
7.5 g Punica granatum with 10 g Melaphis chinensis and 7.5 g Schisandra chinensis showed synergic effect with the MIC at19.5 μg/ml.
Conclusions
The
present study aimed the discovery of therapeutically useful agents for
treatment of superficial fungal infections. Findings suggested that the
combination of 3 TCMs including Punica granatum, Melaphis chinensis and Schisandra chinensis
showed potential antifungal activity and thus appeared to be promising
agents in preventing superficial fungal skin infectious in a natural way
through herbal resources. The synergic effects of invariable and
variable combinations of the tested TCMs threw a light on our further
animal model and clinical practice as well as the bio-guided isolation
and identification of the antifungal compounds.
Graphical abstract
The combination of Punica granatum with Melaphis chinensis and Schisandra chinensis
demonstrated encouraged synergic activity with minimum inhibitory
concentration was 19.5 μg/ml against all of the tested fungi in vitro.
Keywords
- Superficial fungal infections;
- Traditional Chinese Medicines;
- Punica granatum;
- Melaphis chinensis;
- Schisandra chinensis
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