ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1634250
This article is part of the Research TopicTreatment of Infectious Diseases with Bioactive Compounds from Medicinal Plants: Their Mechanisms and Applications - Volume IIView all 8 articles
Anticandidal activity of Clinopodium chilense essential oil
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universidad de Valparaiso, Valparaso, Chile
- 2Laboratorio de Productos Naturales y Síntesis Orgánica (LPNSO), Departamento de Ciencias y Geografía, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas, Universidad de Playa Ancha, Valparaíso, Chile
- 3Universidad de Playa Ancha, Playa Ancha, Chile
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The antifungal activity of the essential oil of Clinopodium chilense (Benth.) Govaerts was investigated against several strains of Candida spp. including clinical isolates and reference strains. Antifungal efficacy was evaluated by determining minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC). The chemical composition of the essential oil, characterized by gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC/MS), revealed pulegone (18.5%), thymol (11.0%), and isomenthone (10.0%) as the primary constituents. Clinopodium chilense essential oil (EO) demonstrated broad-spectrum anticandidal activity against all tested Candida spp., with MIC values ranging from 16 to 64 µg/mL and MFC values from 16 to 128 µg/mL. The EO exhibited potent fungicidal activity (MFC/MIC ratio ≤ 2) against several strains, notably C. tropicalis (MIC and MFC of 16 µg/mL), and also showed efficacy against C. guilliermondii and C. lusitaniae. Among the major components, thymol generally displayed the lowest MIC values (32-64 µg/mL). Molecular docking studies further suggested thymol as a key contributor to the oil's antifungal effect, showing strong binding affinities to C. albicans virulence proteins Als9-2 and the enzyme CYP51. Significantly, the essential oil outperformed amphotericin B against all tested clinical isolates. Overall, C. chilense EO exhibits significant fungistatic and fungicidal activity against pathogenic Candida species without affecting normal cell viability. These findings, supported by chemical characterization and in silico analysis of its major components like thymol, highlight its potential as a source of novel natural antifungal agents.
Keywords: Clinopodium chilense, Essential oil, Pulegone, Thymol, Candida spp
Received: 23 May 2025; Accepted: 27 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Montenegro, Villarroel, Muñoz, Silva and Madrid. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Alejandro Madrid, Laboratorio de Productos Naturales y Síntesis Orgánica (LPNSO), Departamento de Ciencias y Geografía, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas, Universidad de Playa Ancha, Valparaíso, Chile
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