Anticandidal synergistic activity of green tea catechins, antimycotics and copper sulphate as a mean of combinational drug therapy against candidiasis.

The present investigation aims at evaluating synergistic herbal based composition of purified catechins with fluconazole, amphotericin B and copper sulphate against Candida albicans (MTCC 3017) and Candida glabrata (MTCC 3019). The catechins were isolated from green tea leaves of Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand regions of India. The synergistic activity of combinations against Candida species was assessed following microdilution checkerboard technique and time kill assay. The inhibitory action of most significant combination on treated Candida cells was assessed by scanning electron microscopy. Cytotoxicity of synergistic compositions was further analyzed by performing MTT assay on Vero cell lines. Purified catechins of Assam and Himachal Pradesh green tea showed synergistic activity with fluconazole and amphotericin B against Candida species. Time kill assay depicted synergistic activity at minimum inhibitory concentration and twice of minimum inhibitory concentration of purified catechins and antimycotics. Further, Copper sulphate increased anticandidal efficacy of synergistic combinations by 0.4% to 6.63%. SEM analysis revealed morphological distortions of treated Candida cells. Cytotoxicity analysis of synergistic composition depicted high percentage viability (≥91.4% to≥100%) of Vero cell line, which suggests non-cytotoxic activity of proposed composition on healthy cells. It can be inferred that present evaluated synergistic composition can confer promising anticandidal efficacy and requires further investigation of safety and translational guidelines for effective and safer green tea based potent therapeutic drug.