LC-MS Analysis and Antifungal Activity of Sm.

Fungi of the genus are responsible for invasive candidiasis, which affects people all over the world and has high mortality rates. This is due to their virulence factors, which give them great resistance and pathogenicity. In addition, the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains makes it difficult to treat these infections. In this way, natural products have emerged as an alternative to standard drugs, where plants known for their medicinal properties such as become attractive to research. The present work aimed to analyze the ethanol extract of leaves against standard strains of , and using broth microdilution techniques. The identification of the compounds in leaves by LC-MS revealed the presence of a wide variety of substances such as carboxylic acids and terpenes, with flavonoids and fatty acids being more evident. The antifungal assays showed that the extract was not able to inhibit the growth of the tested strains at concentrations with a clinical relevance. However, at higher concentrations, it was able to inhibit the fungal dimorphism of and . It is possible that the extract has potential as an inhibitor of fungal virulence factors without affecting the cell viability. Further research should be carried out in order to assess its inhibitory potential for other fungal virulence factors.