Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Msc of Microbiology, Liver & Digestive Research Center, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran
2 Department of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Urmia, Iran
3 Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Urmia, Iran
Abstract
Wound infections caused by Candida albicans, have substantially grown in recent years. The lack of easy access, medicine costliness, side effects, and development of the pharmaceutical resistance resulted in using biological materials as an alternative. Thymus vulgaris L. is one of the antimicrobial properties of biological materials, whose effectiveness has been proved from a long time ago. This study analyzed the local effects of Thymus essential oil on healing the cutaneous incisional wounds in the case of rats infected with Candida albicans. In this experiment, carried out on 36 Wistar male rats with an average weight of 210±10 g, after general anesthesia and making a 1.5×1.5 cm square wound between the shoulder area, 0.5 ml. of the yeast suspension containing 1.5×106 CFU/ml Candida albicans was applied to the wound(s). Then, in three groups of 12 (to control with 3 percent and 1.5 percent local ointments), the rats were randomly distributed into 4 subgroups of 3 animals (each group was sampled on different days). During the experiment, in order to assess the histopathology and yeast count, at the end of 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th days, samples were taken by a special biopsy punch. According to the result drawn from this experiment, and regarding the effects of 3 percent and 1.5 percent ointments, there was not a conspicuous dissimilarity in reducing the Candida albicans yeast count, but in comparison with the control group, this dissimilarity was noticeably meaningful (P<0.001). Moreover, according to the histopathological studies, both ointments showed significantly remarkable results in terms of reduced blood vessels and mononuclear cells, increased fibroblast cells, and increased number of macrophages in comparison with the control group. Overall, since the 3 percent ointment had achievements similar to the 1.5 percent one, and mostly well-achieved as compared with the other (two) groups, it (the 3 percent ointment) would be the final choice to local usage in the process of healing and reducing of Candida albicans infections.
Keywords