Correlation between Chemical Composition and Antifungal Activity of Essential Oil against spp.

Essential oils (EOs) have been shown to have a diversity of beneficial human health effects. is a large and highly diverse genus of plants with medicinal and cosmetic significance. The aim of this study was to analyze the composition of EOs and to investigate their potential antifungal effects. The chemical compositions of EOs obtained by hydrodistillation were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A total of 101 compounds were identified among the diverse extracts of . EOs of leaves and pericarps from different cultivars (Hainan local wampee and chicken heart wampee) collected in Hainan (China) were classified into four clusters based on their compositions. These clusters showed different antifungal activities against five species (, , , and ) using the disc diffusion method. EOs of pericarps displayed noteworthy antifungal activitives against all the tested strains with inhibition zone diameters in the range of 11.1–23.1 mm. EOs of leaves showed relatively low antifungal activities with inhibition zone diameters in the range of 6.5–22.2 mm. The rank order of antifungal activities among the four EO clusters was as follows: Cluster IV> Cluster III > Cluster I ≥ Cluster II. These results represent the first report about the correlation between chemical composition of EOs and antifungal activity. Higher contents of β-phellandrene, β-sesquiphellandrene and β-bisabolene in EOs of pericarps were likely responsible for the high antifungal activity of Cluster IV EOs. Taken together, our results demonstrate the chemical diversity of EOs and their potential as novel antifungal agents for candidiasis caused by spp. Furthermore, the obtained results showing a wide spectrum of antifungal activities provide scientific evidence for the traditional use of these plants.