{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T22:27:33Z","timestamp":1790202453574,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]],"date-time":"2026-05-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1777593600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003725","name":"National Research Foundation of Korea","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["RS-2025-24534946"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RS-2025-24534946"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003725","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["RS-2025-24534946"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RS-2025-24534946"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/013aysd81","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Korea Environment Industry & Technology Institute","award":["2021003420003"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021003420003"]}]},{"award":["2021003420003"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021003420003"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/022r1q746","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003627","name":"Rural Development Administration","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["RS-2026-25518677"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RS-2026-25518677"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003627","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["RS-2026-25518677"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RS-2026-25518677"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03xs9yg50","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004366","name":"Tabriz University of Medical Sciences","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["58738"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["58738"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004366","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004366","name":"Tabriz University of Medical Sciences","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["58697"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["58697"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004366","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["58738"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["58738"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04krpx645","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["58697"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["58697"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04krpx645","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Plants"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In this study, we investigated the antifungal potential of methanolic extracts and essential oils obtained from five medicinal plants (Salvadora persica, Mentha spicata, Achillea millefolium, Matricaria chamomilla, and Zingiber officinale) against 25 clinical isolates of Candida albicans collected from patients with denture stomatitis. Antifungal susceptibility was assessed using broth microdilution as the primary method, with agar diffusion assays performed to provide complementary visual confirmation. Nystatin was included as a reference control. Across the tested samples, essential oils consistently showed stronger antifungal effects than the corresponding methanolic extracts. Notably, Z. officinale essential oil exhibited the highest level of activity, inhibiting 15 out of 25 isolates and, in several cases, demonstrating efficacy comparable to or exceeding that of nystatin. Chemical profiling by GC\u2013MS indicated that the ginger essential oil was dominated by sesquiterpene and monoterpene hydrocarbons, with zingiberene (21.49%) being the major constituent, followed by \u03b2-sesquiphellandrene, \u03b1-curcumene, sabinene, and \u03b1-citral. This terpene-rich composition may contribute to the observed antifungal activity, potentially through the disruption of fungal cell membrane integrity. Taken together, these results suggest that Z. officinale essential oil represents a promising natural antifungal candidate for the management of denture-associated C. albicans infections. Further studies, including biofilm-based assays and in vivo evaluations, will be necessary to confirm its clinical applicability. To the best of our knowledge, this study is among the first to comparatively assess these five medicinal plants against clinical C. albicans isolates derived specifically from denture stomatitis patients.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/plants15091392","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]],"date-time":"2026-05-01T16:54:07Z","timestamp":1777654447000},"page":"1392","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Comparative Antifungal Activity of Medicinal Plant Extracts and Essential Oils Against Clinical Isolates of Candida albicans from Denture Stomatitis Patients"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9562-9623","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nazanin","family":"Fathi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Center for Immunodeficiencies, Pediatrics Center of Excellence, Children\u2019s Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1416753955, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Joo-Hyun","family":"Hong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Farzaneh","family":"Lotfipour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Food and Drug Safety Research Center, and Department of Pharmaceutical and Food Control, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz 14766-51664, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Samin","family":"Ghaffari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1985717413, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Reza","family":"Abbasi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz 14766-51664, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Parina","family":"Asgharian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz 14766-51664, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rana","family":"Attaran","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz 14766-51664, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hamed","family":"Hamishehkar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Drug Applied Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz 14766-51664, Iran"},{"name":"New Material and Green Chemistry Research Center, Khazar University, 41 Mehseti Street, Baku AZ1096, Azerbaijan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maryam","family":"Kouhsoltani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz 14766-51664, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5285-9138","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ki Hyun","family":"Kim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105","DOI":"10.1016\/j.sdentj.2020.01.008","article-title":"The antimicrobial and antibiofilm properties of allicin against Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus\u2014A therapeutic potential for denture stomatitis","volume":"33","author":"Zainal","year":"2021","journal-title":"Saudi Dent. 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