EFFICACY OF ANTI-FUNGAL PROPERTY OF THE EXTRACT OF DAHLIA PINNATA ON CANDIDA ALBICANS- AN IN VITRO STUDY.

Context: Oral thrush or Candidiasis remains a common problem in children, elderly and immunocompromised patients with ailments like renal diseases, diabetes mellitus etc. Candida albicans is the main causative organism for this disease. Long term use of chemical antifungal make Candida albicans resistant to them. Hence more effective methods/drugs are required to combat Candida.In present scenario research works are being carried out to seek more traditional or herbal treatment to have better healing effects without adverse effects of the synthetic antifungal drugs that are been currently used. To determine Aims: minimum zone of inhibition of Dahlia pinnata against C.albicans An Invitro Study. The well diffusion method using Sabouraud Settings and Design: Methods and Material: dextrose agar plates was used to evaluate the anticandidal activity of 5%, 10% and 50% concentration of Dahlia pinnata leaves extract against C.albicans (ATCC 90228) in comparison with 5% Fluconazole. Results were analyzed using SPSS versio Statistical Analysis : n 19. Independent sample t test was used to compare mean zone of inhibition between two groups with the P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Dahlia pinnata leaves extract exhibited the inhibitory effect against C.albicans. This i Results: nhibitory effect was found to increase as the concentration of the plant extract increased with 5% showing 2.103mm, 10% showing 3.057mm and 50% showing 5.127mm; however even at the highest concentration, it was much less compared to 5% concentration of Fluconazole (6.99mm). The anticandidal Conclusions: activity of Dahlia pinnata leaves against C.albicans needs to be further studied, which may increase its possibility of getting used in herbal medicine in the near future.