Essential Oils : Potential Remedy in Controlling Biofilms-Associated Infections of Human Pathogenic Fungi

The mortality and morbidity due to infectious fungal diseases have been alarming in the last decade. Existing chemotherapeutic agents are incapable of dealing the situation as their improper and illogical use has caused in advent of resistant microbial strains. It has been observed that the majority of fungal infections are associated with biofilm formation by yeasts and filamentous fungi. Biofilms are three-dimensional structures of cells encased in matrix exhibiting 1,000-fold increased drug resistance. To combat such problem, there is utmost need for the discovery and development of newer and alternative agents to combat mycoses. Essential oils have ethnomedicinal values in treating a variety of infectious diseases. Essential oils are products of secondary metabolism of medicinal plants and are complex volatile compounds with the occurrence of diverse types of aldehydes, phenolics, terpenes, and other antimicrobial compounds. This feature underlines the possibility of finding novel broad-spectrum key molecules from phyto-compounds against a broad range of drug-resistant pathogenic microbes. This chapter briefly describes the human fungal infections caused by Candida spp., Aspergillus spp., and Trichophyton spp. and emphasizes on essential oils and its bioactive molecules that could be used as antibiofilm agents, their mechanisms of action, and use in combination with conventional antifungal drugs.