Antifungal activity of extracts from medicinal plants used by First Nations Peoples of eastern Canada

From literature describing medicinal usage of plants by First Nations Peopl es in eastern Canada, 18 eastern Canadian plants were selected and tested f or their antifungal activities. Eight randomly selected tropical plants wer e also tested for comparative purposes. Four groups of plants were obtained : popular antimicrobial-remedy (n = 6), popular non-antimicrobial-remedy (n = 6), random temperate (n = 6) and random tropical (n = 8). Extracts from these plants were tested in disk assays as growth inhibitors of six fungi k nown to be opportunistic human pathogens (Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Cryptoc occus neoformans, Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus, Microsporum gyps eum and Trichophyton mentagrophytes). Of the four plant groups tested, extr acts from the popular antimicrobial-remedy group were significantly more ef fective at inhibiting fungal growth based on both overall antifungal activi ty and number of fungal species inhibited. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Irelan d Ltd. All rights reserved.