Antifungal Activity of Furcraea Foetida Extract Against Candida Species Isolated from Oral Candidiasis Associated with Orthodontic Treatment

The growing resistance of Candida species to a wide range of antifungal medications complicates the treatment of oral candidiasis. Our study explored and identified the in vitro antifungal properties of Furcraea foetida leaf extract against Candida spp. Isolated clinically from 50 patients suffering from active recurrent oral candidiasis associated with their orthodontic treatment. Methodology was depending on using agar plate diffusion and internal transcribed spacer (ITS)with PCR genotyping. Genotyping method demonstrated 23 isolates of Candida spp, showed high frequency of C.albicans isolates (65.2%, 550bp), C.parapsilosis (30.4%, 520bp) and C.holmii (4.3%, 720bp). By employing agar plate diffusion method, the results indicated that the 50% concentration of direct crude extract F. foetida demonstrated effective inhibition zones against Candida spp. isolates in comparable to 10 mg of fluconazole (p=0.403), but against non-albicans isolates, the extract showed smaller inhibition zones (p˂0.001). These results support F. foetida leaf extract as a promising natural antifungal resource for the development of topical or adjunctive therapeutic agents against oral Candida albicans infections, demanding further pharmacologic development.