Studies on Candida albicans causing vaginal and urinary tract inflammation: Prevalence, antifungal resistance, and natural product susceptibility

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Egypt.

2 Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Egypt.

Abstract

Antifungal resistance in Candida albicans is one of the most harmful microorganisms that can cause inflammation in the vaginal and urinary tracts. To get around this problem, we tested how well some natural products worked against C. albicans. This study focused on isolating, identifying, studying the prevalence, and the susceptibility of Candida to some natural products. After isolation on specific media, we carried out morphological and biochemical identification of the recovered Candida isolates. We then estimated the antifungal resistance of the isolates against antifungal substances and their sensitivity to apple cider vinegar, garlic, lavender, coconut, and tea tree oils. We obtained only twelve Candida isolates out of fifty urine samples and vaginal swabs. The biochemical identification revealed that all isolates were Candida spp. The most antifungal-resistant isolates have an estimated ITS gene. After that, the susceptibility of six isolates to apple cider vinegar, tea tree oil, coconut oil, garlic oil, and lavender oil revealed the sensitivity of Candida to tested products. Finally, the ITS2 gene sequencing results confirmed the identification of C. albicans MS24 and C. albicans MS44 respectively. Our study concluded that C. albicans is considered one of the most common causes of vaginal and urinary tract inflammation. Also, natural products, especially tea tree oil and apple cider vinegar, have excellent antifungal activity against both C. albicans MS24 and MS44 respectively.

Keywords

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 01 October 2024
  • Revise Date: 17 November 2024
  • Accept Date: 29 December 2024

Share

How to cite

Statistics