A review on antifungal activities of benzoxazoles against Candida Albicans and SAR studies

Millions of people are dying due to fungal infections annually across the globe. About 70% of the fungal infections are due to Candida Albicans in the world with mortality rate around 40%. This fungus has the ability to develop resistance upon prolonged exposure to antifungal drugs. To overcome this challenge, new generation antifungals are in need to treat infections and diseases caused by C. albicans . This review collects research articles on antifungal activities of benzoxazoles against C. albicans , which are reported from 1981 to 2025. Notably, along with benzoxazoles, which are tethered with other heterocycles such as pyrrole, thiophene, triazole, benzofuran, oxadiazole, piperidine, morpholine, piperazine and pyrazoles, and benzoxazoles containing functional groups like sulfonyl, imine, hydrazone, hydrazine, thioether, ether and amide contributed considerably for antifungal activity against C. albicans . Further, this review serves as a foundation for medicinal and bio-organic chemists to design new antifungal molecules against C. albicans , and also shed light on structure activity relationships (SAR).