Antifungal Activity of Litsea cubeba Oil Against Candida albicans

doi:10.13560/j.cnki.biotech.bull.1985.2015.10.031

Abstract

Abstract: The work aims to investigate the antifungal activity of Litsea cubeba oil against Candida albicans, and illustrate its antifungal mechanism. L. cubeba oil was extracted by distillation and the compounds were identified using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry（GC/MS）. The minimum inhibitory concentration（MIC）and minimum fungal concentration（MFC）were determined by agar dilution method, and the antifungal kinetics of L. cubeba oil was studied. Finally, scanning and transmission electron microscopy（SEM and TEM）were used to observe the cell ultrastructure alteration after treated with L. cubeba oil. The main compounds of L. cubeba oil were D-Limonene（26.51%）, citral（11.94%）and verbenol（11.84%）. The MIC and MFC were both 1.25 μL/mL. Concerning antifungal kinetics, the oil only prolonged the lag phase of C. albicans, but not completely killed the cells while the concentration of oil below the MIC. Moreover, results of SEM indicated that C. albicans was destroyed easily at the neck between the mother cell and daughter bud after treated by L. cubeba oil. The results of TEM showed that the essential oil damaged the cell wall or the cell membrane, leading to the leakage of macromolecules and lysis. Conclusively, L. cubeba oil had an excellent antifungal activity against C. albicans, the dividing cells showed much more sensitive to L. cubeba oil, and the high concentration of the oil（5.0 μL/mL）led to irreversible damages of the cells. The targets of L. cubeba oil to fungi were the cell’s wall and outer membrane, which caused the large molecules leakage and organelles deformation, and finally led the cells to death.

Key words: Litsea cubeba oil, Candida albicans, antifungal activity, antifungal kinetics, SEM, TEM

Liang Qing, Li Wenru, Shi Qingshan, Zhang Weimin. Antifungal Activity of Litsea cubeba Oil Against Candida albicans[J]. Biotechnology Bulletin, 2015, 31(10): 205-210.

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