[The synergism of antifungals and essential oils against Candida spp. evaluated by a modified gradient-diffusion method].

The usefulness of modified method of MIC Test Strip, for determining the synergistic effect of essential oils in the liquid or volatile phase with fluconazole and voriconazole, was evaluated. Geranium oil used against C. albicans in agar dilution test, at a concentration of 1/2 MIC caused a drop in the value of fluconazole MIC from 12.0 mg/l to 0.064 mg/l and voriconazole from 0.125 mg/l to 0.006 mg/l. A similar effect of drug combinations with essential oils was obtained in the case of C. glabrata study. Volatile Clove oil and cytronelal, applied in subMIC concentrations, also caused a reduction offluconazole and voriconazole MICs. Thus, utility of this simple methods developed by us for testing the effectiveness of combinations of known drugs and new compounds with antifungal activity, has been confirmed.