Herbal Anise and It's Bioactive Anethole That Kill Fungi Before They Can Cause Infection

Kyle J. Norton, Master of Nutrition

Anise may have a potential and substantial antifungal effect, some scientists suggested.

Antifungal activity is the systematic immune response with an aim to protect the body against damage and injury by destroying fungal invasion during the acute phase of infection.

In the plants, certain chemicals or pigments found the outer layer is also the natural anti microorganisms agents with a function to that protect the plants against certain microorganisms in causing harm and interfering with the plants' survival.

Fungal diseases are often caused by fungi found in the environment. They are easy to treat if diagnosed early. However, untreated and late diagnosed fungal diseases may cause some serious complications such as lung infection, infertility and sometimes be life-threatening due to toxicity.

Dr. Robinson PA, the lead scientist in the study of life-threatening fungal infections in patients who cannot be treated with conventional antifungal agents, wrote, " .......in patients with serious fungal infections who failed to respond to or could not tolerate conventional antifungal therapy. Patients were enrolled if they had a life-threatening fungal infection and conventional therapy had failed to eradicate the infection, had caused serious toxic reactions, or was contraindicated".

If you are currently taking conventional medicine such as clotrimazole, econazole, or miconazole for treatment of fungal infection, please make sure that you know the adverse effects, particularly if you are taking them on a long-term basis.

Anise is a flowering plant of the species of Pimpinella anisum, genus Pimpinella, belongings to the family Apiaceae native to Egypt and the Mediterranean region, used in traditional herbal medicine as a fragrance in soaps, oils, and mouth fresheners and stomachic, antiseptic, anti-spasmodic,...

Chemical constituents
Anethole, D-pinene, I-phellandrene, Alpha-terpineol, Safrol, Methyl chavicol, Resin, Shikimic acid, etc.

In the evaluation of the antifungal activities of fluid extract and essential oil isolated from Anise researchers at the University of Zagreb found that application of Anise fluid extract displays a significant antimycotic activity against Candida albicans, C. parapsilosis, C. tropicalis, C. pseudotropicalis, and C. krusei at the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) between 17 and 20%

and dermatophyte species (Trichophyton rubrum, T. mentagrophytes, Microsporum canis, and M. gypseum) with MIC values between 1.5 and 9.0%.

In compared to the fluid extract, Anise essential oil showed a very strong antifungal activity in yeasts with MIC lower than 1.56% (V/V) and dermatophytes with MIC lower than 0.78% (V/V).

Further, in the examine the efficacy of fluid extract researchers surprisingly found that fluid extract not only does not exert any inhibition of species of C. glabrata but also promotes the growth of activity of Geotrichum spp. in compared to essential oil counterpart.

These results suggested that although the fluid extract and essential oil react differently in fungal inhibition, the essential oil expressed an impressively stronger antifungal activity against all species but weaker in compared to nystatin(an antifungal medication) in Geotrichum spp.

Moreover, due to the statistically significant difference of MIC values (p < 0.01) between the essential oils and the fluid extract of anise, researchers suspected that some very potent fungicidal components must be presented in the essential oil of Anise, but not in the fluid extract or only presented in a very low concentration.

Interestingly, in compared to ketoconazole(an antifungal drug), the fluid extract and essential oil of Anise pronounced a substantially higher or equal antifungal activity.

Dr. Kosalec I, after taking into account other co-founders, said, "Anise essential oil exhibited stronger antifungal activities against yeasts and dermatophytes with MIC values between 0.10 and 1.56% (V/V),(in compared to 1.5 and 9.0% of the extract), respectively".

Some researchers suggested that anethole, a major chemical compound found on Anise essential oil may be the component which exerted a significant effect against plant pathogenic fungi, according to the data obtained by hydro-distillation analyzed for its chemical composition by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

Indeed, trans-Anethole of 89.5% and cis-anethole 0.7% were found in high concentration in the essential oil but not in the fluid extract.

Anethole expressed a significant antifungal effect, probably through exhibiting antioxidant activities and stimulating the natural antioxidants produced by the body to protect the healthy cell against oxidative damage induced by expression of ROS caused by the proliferation of fungal species.

More importantly, anethole also inhibited chitin, an important structural component of the cell walls of many fungi indirectly governed by an enzymatic activity in permeabilized hyphae, filaments that make up the mycelium of a fungus.in a dose-dependent manner.

These differentiations suggested that anethole may be developed as natural fungicides for plant disease control in fruit and vegetable preservation without inducing intolerantly adverse effect.

Taken together, Anise and its bioactive anethole may be considered as a functional herb for reduced risk, progression and combined with conventional medicine for treatment of fungal overgrowth.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Antifungal activity of fluid extract and essential oil from anise fruits (Pimpinellaanisum L., Apiaceae). by Kosalec I1, Pepeljnjak S, Kustrak D.(PubMed)
(2) Antifungal activity of the essential oil of Illicium verum fruit and its main component trans-anethole by Huang Y1, Zhao J, Zhou L, Wang J, Gong Y, Chen X, Guo Z, Wang Q, Jiang W.(PubMed)
(3) Essential Oils and Antifungal Activity Filomena Nazzaro 1,* ID, Florinda Fratianni 1 ID, Raffaele Coppola 2 and Vincenzo De Feo(Pharmaceutical, MDPI)
(4) Fluconazole for life-threatening fungal infections in patients who cannot be treated with conventional antifungal agents by Robinson PA1, Knirsch AK, Joseph JA. (PubMed)