ASSESSING SYNERGISTIC EFFECT OF GREEN TEA CATECHINS AND ANTIMYCOTICS AGAINST CANDIDA SPECIES

Abstract

Currently, there has been a tremendous increase in the incidence of human opportunistic Candida infections associated with mortality rate currently ranging from 40-60%.Candida albicans and non-albicans Candida species such as C. glabrata, C. tropicalis, and C. parapsilosis are the prevalent opportunistic pathogens which are contributing in superficial to invasive candidiasis. The emergence of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic Candida species has led to explore new alternative therapies in combating its associated life threatening infections. Green tea (derived from the leaves of Camellia sinensis) is the nature s treasure to the mankind. It is bestowed with huge collection of polyphenols called as catechins which contributes in its multiple health efficacies. newlineIn the present comprehensive study, methanolic, acetone and aqueous extract of green tea leaves collected from Assam (AT), Himachal Pradesh (HP) and Uttarakhand (IP and PN) were explored for their phytoconstituents qualitatively and quantitatively. The HPLC analysis of purified catechins residue procured from solvent partitioning method depicted highest concentration of epigallocatechin gallate (165.4± 3.353 mg/g) in AT green tea followed by HP, IP and PN green tea. newlineCombination of purified catechins of AT and HP with fluconazole and amphotericin B have shown significantly higher synergistic anticandidal activity against Candida albicans MTCC 3017 and C. glabrata MTCC 3019 with percentage inhibition of90.1±0.14% to 96.4±0.82%. Incorporation of CuSO4into the synergistic combinations of green tea catechins, Flu and AmB showed an increase of 0.4% to 4.85% in inhibitory potential against Candida albicans, while increase of 2.74% to 6.63% in inhibitory potential was depicted against C. glabrata. The morphological examination of Candida cells via SEM analysis revealed abnormal and distorted phenotypic characteristics of treated cells of Candida albicans and C. glabrata. newlineThe inhibitory mechanism involved in synergistic anticandidal efficacy of green tea and antimy