In Vitro and In Vivo Antifungal Activity of Albizia lebbeck L.Ethanolic Extract against Keratinophilic Fungi and Its Genoprotective Potential Using Comet Assay

Abstract

Keratinophilic fungi are one of the most significant skin diseases affecting both humans and animals. Despite the availability of numerous treatments against these fungi, their symptoms and the long duration of treatment may prevent complete recovery in a short period of time. Therefore, there is a request to search for plants from nature that can be used as alternatives to antibiotics and chemical treatments. The results demonstrated the inhibition of three types of plant extracts (petroleum ether, chloroform, and ethanol), showing that these extracts have the ability to inhibit keratinophilic fungi (Trichophyton Schoenleinii, Microsporum canis, and Aspergillus flavus) on Mueller-Hinton agar at the four concentrations used in the experiment, indicating the efficiency of the plant for use in treating cutaneous diseases caused by fungi. The highest rate of inhibition was also recorded using the extract of Ethanol at concentration 4 which is the highest concentration used in the experiment. The comet assay is used as an applied analysis to measure broken DNA strands resulting from chemical and oxidative stress. It was used in this study before and after treatment to demonstrate the efficiency of the alcoholic extract in treating fungal skin infections. Regarding the experimental animals, the apparent results from the five groups taken from male mice, with each group containing 6 mice, showed that all the mice developed cutaneous lesions by scratching method ranging from mild to moderate after two weeks of exposure to the pathogen. After two weeks, the animals were treated with an ethanolic extract from the Albizia Lebbek plant at a concentration of 4 ml/liter, which showed inhibitory efficacy against keratinophilic fungi. Using the comet assay, the extract demonstrated its efficacy and ability to not harm living cells, in addition to the therapeutic potential of the extract