Background: Dermatological infections are the fourth major leading cause of nonfatal ailment to human kind which are difficult to treat. Medicinal plants are a rich source for the discovery of novel antifungal compounds since they have long been used for their antifungal properties to treat superficial skin infections.
Methods: The present study evaluates the efficacy of 10 selected medicinal plants for anti- dermatophytic efficacy by disc diffusion assay, minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimal fungicidal concentration (MFC) and Thin layer chromatography guided characterisation of the antifungal compound.
Findings: All the test plants exhibited anti-dermatophytic activity against one or the other test fungi except Sauropus androgynus, Combretum indicum and Entada gigas. Terminalia catappa, Syzygium jambos and Terminalia arjuna were seen significantly inhibiting Microsporum canis, Microsporum gypseum, Trichophyton rubrum, Trichosporon asahii and Candida albicans with significant zone of inhibition ranging from 12.9±0.2 to 42.8±0.2 mm. Anti- dermatophytic activity of Catunaregum spinosa and Filicium decipiens is been reported here for the first time with inhibition zone ranging from 10.5±0.17 to 22.7±0.4. The test plants also exhibited significant minimum inhibitory concentration (9- 1250 µg/ml) which posed both fungicidal and fungistatic effect against one or the other test fungi and T. catappa acetone extract (TCA) being the most effective extract against all the test fungi having MIC from 19 to 312 µg/ml. Further, TCA was evaluated for thin layer chromatography-bioautography assay, the eluted phytocompounds with Rf values 0.71 and 0.52 exhibited halo zone around the compound indicating inhibition of M. gypseum and M. canis. Band with Rf value 0.52 was characterised and was tentatively identified as triterpenoid compound. Further pure compound isolation and structure elucidation is required to confirm the said compound.
Novelty: The plants employed here could be candidate plants for bioprospecting anti- dermatophytic compounds especially from the plant T. catappa, S. jambos, C. spinosa and F. decipiens. Further studies including isolation, characterisation and toxicity evaluation of triterpenoid compounds from the plant T. catappa is warranted which could pave way in developing alternative drugs for anti- dermatophytic therapy.
Keywords: Dermatophytosis, Polyphenols, Terminalia, Microsporum, Thymoquinone, Nigella sativa, Antifungal activity, TLC-Bioautography, Trichosporon asahii, Antifungal activity.
How to cite this article: Sowmya TN, Kumara KKS, Nalini MS, Raveesha KA; A Systematic Bioactivity-Guided in-vitro approach for bioprospecting selected Medicinal Plants Targeting Dermatophytic Fungi. Int J Drug Deliv Technol. 2026;16(1): 251-262. DOI: 10.25258/ijddt.16.1.27