Medicinal plants of the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde) with antifungal potential

Abstract

Medicinal plants synthesize various secondary metabolites that can be used for therapeutic and antimicrobial purposes. In Brazil, the Unified Health System (SUS) offers several herbal medicines as an alternative in the treatment of various diseases. Considering the importance of these plants in the production of chemicals that expand therapeutic options and improve the health of SUS users, this review was carried out to quantitatively determine the antifungal activity of plants used as phytotherapeutics at RENAME. The selection of papers was performed at three distinct stages: examining and choosing titles related to antifungal action, reading the abstracts, and reading the whole selected articles. This review selected 22 studies of interest; 12 of them were conducted in Brazil and 10 were carried out in other countries. The papers chosen tested the growth inhibitory effect of plants against fungal species of agricultural and health importance, ranging from filamentous to yeast-like fungi, and Candida albicans was the most tested species. The growth of 39 fungal species were inhibited by some concentration of the extract used, with either an increase or decrease in antifungal activity depending on the extract used. The most frequently analyzed plant was the species Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi., studied in seven papers. The results found demonstrate the importance of analyzing medicinal plants and incorporating plant-based medicines in healthcare as an alternative source of treatment, highlighting the need for studies that evaluate the mechanisms action of their cytotoxicity and therapeutic effects in the human body.