Investigation of Xylaria spp. from Thailand with antifungal property against saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

The enormous number and variety of chemotherapeutic agents derived from natural products that are used to treat fungal infection are a major part in the improvement of human health management. However, demands for better effective antifungal drugs are increasing since there are currently a limited number of available antifungal agents, as well as an increase in the population of resistant systemic fungal pathogens. For this reason, searching for new bioactive compounds to fulfill the medical needs has become important. The objective of this study was to investigate the antifungal activity of five isolates of a wood-decaying fungi Xylaria spp. against model yeast Sacccharomyces cerevisiae. Xylaria spp. is an interesting source of efficient bioactive compounds and can be found all over Thailand. Growth inhibition using spot assay determined the antifungal activity of X. abuscula, X. grammica, X. hypoerythra, X. multiple and X. nigripes. As a result of the study, we have found that all Xylaria extracts showed no antifungal activity against S. cerevisiae. Subsequent experiments were interested in the effect of combining these extracts with the antifungal drug ketoconazole. The extracts from X. grammica, X. hypoerythra, and X. nigripes have been shown to increase tolerance to ketoconazole in S. cerevisiae. This is of interest in examining the effect of these extracts on the action of ketoconazole on growth of S. cerevisiae.