Antifungal Properties of Some Mexican Medicinal Plants

The antifungal properties of some extracts from Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt., Heliopsis longipes 'A. Gray' Blake., Satureja macrostema Benth. and Tagetes lucida Cav. were analyzed, using the agar disc diffusion method. After 72 h incubation, the plant extracts inhibited the growth of fungi, but the ethyl acetate and methanol-chloroform extracts from A. ludoviciana, H. longipes and T. lucida inhibited all the fungi assayed: Candida albicans, Colletotrichum linde- muthianum, Mucor circinelloides, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Sporothrix schenckii. The spore germination inhibition assay suggested that methanol-chloroform extract from A. ludoviciana was the most active against the fungi tested. The methanol-chloroform and ethyl acetate extracts from A. ludoviciana and T. lucida had pronounced antifungal activity against fungi tested. Compounds found in the leaves methanol-chloroform extracts from A. ludoviciana were analyzed by using GC/MS; the major compounds were: 1-8-cineole, camphor, borneol, cis-verbenol, myrtenol, eugenol, cariophyllene, � -farnesene, spathulenol, derivatives of caryophyllene and derivatives of spathulenol.