Valli S & S Gokulshankar

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of multidrug resistant strains of fungi and the recent appearance of strains with reduced susceptibility to antifungal agents raises the specter of untreatable fungal infections and adds urgency to the search for new infection-fighting strategies which involves the utilization of bioactive phytochemicals from plants. The ethanolic extract obtained from the fruit of Terminalia chebula was assessed for their antifungal activity against clinical and environmental isolates of C neoformans. Extracts were prepared from the fruits by standard techniques and phytochemical analysis of the extract was performed.to study the bioactive compounds The compounds were identified by GC MS .analysis and the functional groups were identified by FTIR. Of the 10 isolates tested the clinical isolates were more susceptible than the environmental isolates. C5and E3 was found to be more susceptible with the zone of inhibition 25mm at a concentration of 4mg/ml.. Mass spectrometric analysis revealed the presence of phenolic compounds and tannins. FTIR analysis revealed the presence of alkanes alkynes esters carboxylic acids etc. as chemical groups constituting the bioactive compounds .