Broad spectrum antimycotic drug for the control of fungal infection in human beings

During antifungal evaluation of the secondary metabolites (essential oil) o f some Eucalyptus species, E, citriodora was found to be most effective as an antifungal against human pathogenic fungi Microsporum nanum, Trichophyto n mentagrophytes and T, rubrum. While the pure oil (100%) killed the M, nan um in 20 s and T, mentagrophytes, T, rubrum in just 15 s, at their minimum fungicidal concentrations (MFCs) it required 5 h 30 min against M, nannum a nd 4 h against T. mentagrophytes and T, rubrum. On comparing the minimum ef fective concentration of the oil with those of prevalent synthetic antifung al drugs, the oil was found to be more effective. Moreover, it did not exhi bit any adverse side effects on mammalian skin up to 5% concentration, The oil in the form of ointment broad spectrum antimycotic drug (BSAD) was subj ected to topical testing on patients attending out patient department of M. L.N. Medical College, Allahabad, All patients showed positive potassium hyd roxide (KOH) results at the beginning of the trial. Patients were diagnosed as either tinea pedis or tinea cruris, After the second week of treatment, all patients were KOH-negative, At the end of the third week of treatment, every patient was KOH-negative and remained negative when re-examined afte r one month of treatment, thereby leaving no scope for relapse. At the end of treatment, while 55.5% of patients recoverd completely, 44.5% showed sig nificant improvement from the disease, The ointment thus not only showed ma ximum effectivity, but was also found to be cost effective, had long shelf life, and showed absence of any adverse side effects.