Title:The Potential of Iranian Medicinal Plants in Combating Candida Albicans, A Major Cause of Oral Candidiasis: A Systematic Review
Volume: 20
Issue: 1
Author(s): Asma Sepahdar, Behnoush Selahbarzin, Kheyrie Baji, Pegah Shakib*Fatemeh Ahmadpour
Affiliation:
- Razi Herbal Medicines Research Center, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran
Keywords:
Medicinal plants, Candida albicans, oral candidiasis, native of Iran, systematic review, in vitro, in vivo, clinical trials.
Abstract:
Introduction: The weaknesses of traditional drugs against fungi, such as resistance and
adverse reactions highlight the urgent need for alternative therapies. Plant extracts offer great potential
for developing alternative antifungal therapies against Candida albicans. The current systematic
study aimed to introduce medicinal plants native to Iran that could effectively combat Candida albicans,
the primary cause of oral candidiasis.
Methods: In this systematic review study, a search was performed for articles published in English
from 2000 onwards in databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Web of Sciences,
and Scopus with keywords ("Herbal medicines" or "Extract" or "Essential oil" or " Iran" or
"Plant") and "In vitro", "In vivo", and "Clinical trials," considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Results: From 170 studies initially retrieved from ScienceDirect, PubMed, Scopus, Ovid, and
Cochrane databases, 124 duplicates were removed, and after this, 75 studies were transferred to
EndNote software.
Discussion: Using the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 49 irrelevant studies were eliminated during
the screening step once each study's title and abstract were assessed. Based on the availability of
their full texts, the 45 remaining studies were evaluated. Finally, 37 studies were selected.
Conclusions: The study examined the impact of native plants from Iran on C. albicans, a common
cause of oral candidiasis, and suggests that by conducting more extensive research in the future,
these plants could be used to develop new compounds for the treatment of oral candidiasis.
