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. 2023 Jan 16;12(2):415.
doi: 10.3390/plants12020415.

LC-MS Analysis and Antifungal Activity of Turnera subulata Sm

Jacqueline Cosmo Andrade-Pinheiro  1   2 , Celestina Elba Sobral de Souza  1 , Daiany Alves Ribeiro  1 , Andressa de Alencar Silva  1 , Viviane Bezerra da Silva  3 , Antonia Thassya Lucas Dos Santos  1 , Victor Juno Alencar Fonseca  1 , Delmacia Gonçalves de Macêdo  1 , Rafael Pereira da Cruz  1 , José Weverton Almeida-Bezerra  1 , Antonio Júdson Targino Machado  1 , Thiago Sampaio de Freitas  1 , Edy Sousa de Brito  4 , Paulo Riceli Vasconcelos Ribeiro  4 , José Galberto Martins da Costa  1 , Henrique Douglas Melo Coutinho  1 , Grażyna Kowalska  5 , Rafał Rowiński  5 , Radosław Kowalski  6 , Maria Flaviana Bezerra Morais-Braga  1
Affiliations

LC-MS Analysis and Antifungal Activity of Turnera subulata Sm

Jacqueline Cosmo Andrade-Pinheiro et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Fungi of the Candida 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 Turnera subulata become attractive to research. The present work aimed to analyze the ethanol extract of Turnera subulata leaves against standard strains of Candida albicans, Candida krusei and Candida tropicalis using broth microdilution techniques. The identification of the compounds in T. subulata 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 C. albicans and C. tropicalis. It is possible that the T. subulata 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.

Keywords: antifungal; extract; virulence; yeasts.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chromatogram showing the negative mode of T. subulata leaves.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Antifungal effect of Turnera subulata ethanol extract (EELTS) compared with standard antifungal. FCZ: fluconazole. (A) CA: Candida albicans INCQS 40006; (B) CT: Candida tropicalis INCQS 40042; (C) CK: Candida krusei INCQS 40095. p < 0.05. * p < 0.1 and ** p < 0.01 when compared with the growth control.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Growth control and fluconazole effect in Candida morphological transition assays. (1–3): Candida growth control; (4–6): effect of fluconazole. View from a 40 × objective. CA: Candida albicans; CK: Candida krusei; CT: Candida tropicalis.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effect of ethanol extract from Turnera subulata leaves on Candida morphological transition. CK: Candida krusei; CT: Candida tropicalis; CA: Candida albicans; INCQS: Instituto Nacional de Controle de Qualidade em Saúde. (1,4,7): concentrations of 512 µg/mL; (2,5,8): 2048 µg/mL; (3,6,9): 8192 µg/mL.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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