comparing the anticandidal activities of salvia macrosiphon essential oil and fluconazole

Aims: candidiasis is the most opportunistic infection with a high rate of recurrent infection. salvia macrosiphon has an antibacterial effect; however, its antifungal effect was not studied. this study aimed to investigate the chemical composition of essential oil from leaves of salvia macrosiphon and its antifungal activity compared with fluconazole.materials & methods: salvia macrosiphon leaves, a native plant of kogiluyeh and boyerahmad province, were collected from zagros heights and used in this study. then, the essential oil of this plant was tested for antibacterial and antifungal properties and compared with fluconazole.  the chemical composition of the essential oil was analyzed by gc/ms (gas chromatography mass spectrometry), and the antifungal activity of the plant’s essential oil was compared with that of fluconazole.findings: the results of gc-ms analysis proved the presence of at least 29 compounds in the essential oil of salvia macrosiphon. amon these constitute butyl benzoate (49.16%), n-hexyl benzoate (7%), and isopatolenol (4.83%) were the main compounds. the minimum inhibitory concentration (mic) of the essential oil (µl/ml) of salvia macrosiphon and fluconazole (μg/ml) were 0.44 and 0.7 for candida albicans, 0.056 and 0.7 for c. glabrata, and 0.1 and 0.088 for c. parapsilosis, respectively. also, statistical analysis demonstrated a significant difference between the mean of fluconazole and essential oil in total candida isolates (p=0.001).conclusion: the essential oil of salvia macrosiphon has stronger antifungal activity than fluconazole.