Chemical Composition of the Leaf Oil of Cymbopogon martinii var. sofia Collected from Udaipur, Rajasthan and their Screening Against Fungi Causing Dermatophytosis in Human Beings

Cymbopogon martinii var. sofia an important medicinal plant, was collected from forest nursery Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. Plant is very known among local tribal and sub-tribal community due to their medicinal importance. Oil was extracted through hydrodistillation method using Clevenger's apparatus. GC/GC-MS analysis of C. martinii essential oil exhibited presence of 37 compounds. The major constituents were sabinol (19.19 %), trans-p-mentha-2,8-dienol (18.67 %), trans-carveol (18.27 %), cis-p-mentha-2,8-dien-1-ol (11.11 %), cis-carveol (7.66 %), delphone (7.47 %), carvone (3.72 %), durenol (3.01 %), limonene (1.76 %) and camphene (1.59 %). Antidermatophytic activity of C. martinii leaves essential oil was carried out against selected dermatophytic fungi and Candida albicans using disc diffusion technique and by minimum inhibitory concentration determinations. Maximum 80.67 +/- 0.289 mm inhibition zone and activity index 3.2 was observed against Trichophyton mentagrophytes (MTCC 7687) followed by 78.33 +/- 1.527 mm against M. fulvum (MTCC 2837) and 45.5 +/- 0.500 mm against T. rubrum (MTCC 296). Minimum inhibitory concentration was ranged from 2 mu l/ml to 3 mu l/ml against tested fungi. Present study concluded that essential oil of Cymbopogon martinii Var. Sofia have strong antimicrobial properties.