Abstract

Present study was designed to explore the essential oil of Trachyspermum ammi and its fractions against fungi causing dermatophytoses in humans along with toxicological evaluation on mice. The chemical composition of T. ammi essential oil analyzed by gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry presented 20 compounds. Thymol was found to be the major compound (58.88 %) followed by p-cymene (24.02 %), γ-terpinene (13.77 %) and β-pinene (1.90 %). Antidermatophytic activity was determined by disc diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration. Maximum zone of inhibition was observed against Chrysosporium tropicum (63.83±0.166 mm) followed by Trichophyton simii (57±0.288 mm), Trichophyton rubrum (51.33±0.333 mm) and Chrysosporium indicum (45±0.577 mm). Minimum inhibitory concentration of T. ammi oil ranged from 0.025 to 0.5 μl/ml against test fungi. T. ammi oil was further subjected for fraction separation through Buchii's glass oven equipment. Five fractions were separated at different temperature conditions labeled as TAI-TAV. Maximum effects were seen in case of TAIV and TAV fractions. Excellent results of TAV was observed against Microsporum gypseum (0.015±0.002 μl/ml) followed by Microsporum canis (0.017±0.002 μl/ml), Trichophyton rubrum (0.02±0.000 μl/ml) and Candida albicans (0.05±0.003 μl/ml). No work on T. ammi essential oil fractions, their antidermatophytic activity and toxicological behavior on Swiss Albino mice were reported till date. Acute dermal irritation assay was applied for toxicological studies on Albino mice. Low concentration up to 3 % did not show any irritation on mice skin. At 5 % concentration 3 mice showed mild erythema, while on 7 % concentration all five mice exhibited well defined erythema. Present study concluded that essential oil of T. ammi and its fractions have strong antidermatophytic properties with no side effect at low concentrations and thus could produce alternative therapeutics to current antibiotics.