Essential oils of and have effective antidermatophytic activities and that are antagonised by ketoconazole and potentiated in gold nanospheres.

The investigation of the effects of three essential oils (EOs) from (FRA), (TTO) and (IF), alone and combined with ketoconazole (KTZ), and their functionalised gold nanoparticles (AuNP) against both and indicated that EOs presented activity against . The combination of EOs and KTZ was antagonistic. FRA, TTO, gold nanoparticles capped with (AuNPFRA) and gold nanoparticles capped with (AuNPTTO) presented antidermatophytic activity , with the capacity to reduce fungal burden and to preserve tissue architecture; however, combination treatment with KTZ increased fungal burden and caused tissue damage. The combination of EO with KTZ exhibited antagonistic activity and was histologically harmful. In contrast, FRA, TTO, AuNPFRA and AuNPTTO are promising treatments for dermatophytosis.