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ABSTRACT
Plants of the Mentha genus have been studied for their application as anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antimicrobial agents, with these effects being attributed to menthol, the majority compound. This review aims to compile research on the antifungal action of menthol and its derivatives. A search was conducted on the following databases: Web of Science, Medline/PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library, Scopus and Science Direct, using the descriptors ‘menthol’ and/or ‘derivatives’. Twenty-six articles on in vitro studies were selected. Menthol showed activity mainly against Candida albicans, Candida krusei, Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium spp. with MICs 0.78–1000 µg/mL and MFC 0.5–1000 µg/mL. In combination with fluconazole, it presented a synergistic effect against Candida genus. However, there have been few studies on the mechanisms of action. Although the method and its derivatives are promising, further studies are needed to fully explore their effects.
Abbreviations
| CFU | = | Colony forming unit |
| EC50 | = | Half maximum effective concentration |
| EO | = | Essential oil |
| FIC | = | Fractional Inhibitory Concentration |
| IFIC | = | Fractional inhibitory concentration Index |
| IZ | = | Inhibition zone |
| MFC | = | Minimum fungicidal concentration |
| MIC | = | Minimum inhibitory concentration. |
Acknowledgments
The authors thank David Peter Harding for editing the English text.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10412905.2024.2376673
Contributions
APCT and IOL elaborated the study design; APCT and FMSM performed a parallel screening of the 2211 articles found; IOL analysed the articles with inclusion uncertainties; APCT and FMSM extracted information for the PICO’s format; APCT and FMSM discussed the article results; HLFP, IOL, RCSS performed the review-critique of the study.