Dermatophytosis is caused by a group of pathogenic fungi namely, dermatophytes, is among the most prevalent
infectious diseases worldwide.
Azole drugs are widely used in the treatment of
dermatomycosis, but can cause various side effects and drug resistance to the patients. Hence, for solving this problem can be used from the
plant extract as alternative for chemical drugs.
Allicin is a pure bioactive compound isolated from garlic was tested for its potential as a treatment of
dermatomycosis in this study. This study evaluated the in vitro efficacy of pure
allicin against ten isolates of Trichophyton rubrum and the MIC50 and MIC90 ranged from 0.78-12.5 μg/ml for
allicin. The results revealed that the order of efficacy based on the MICs values, all isolates showed almost comparable response to
allicin and
ketoconazole except for some isolates, at 28 °C for both 7 and 10 days incubation. Mann-Whitney test indicate that MICs at 7 days incubation was not observed a significant difference between the effects of
allicin and
ketoconazole (p > 0.05), but MICs
at 10 days incubation, a significant difference was observed (p ≤ 0.05). On the other side, time kill studies revealed that
allicin used its fungicidal activity within 12-24 h of management in vitro as well as
ketoconazole. In conclusion,
allicin showed very good potential as an antifungal compound against
mycoses-causing dermatophytes, almost the same as the
synthetic drug ketoconazole. Therefore, this
antifungal agent appears to be effective, safe and suitable alternative for the treatment of
dermatomycosis.