Candida albicans and other Candida species have been highly associated with several opportunistic fungal infections. Their ability to develop host infections is incited by different determinants, being virulence factors the most highlighted. Molecular targets of the antifungal drugs are crucial components for determination of yeast survival. Ergosterol, nucleic acids and glucan are the most studied molecular targets to destroy Candida species, being considered the basis of the development of new antifungal drugs. However, increasing levels of resistant Candida species to the current antifungal drugs have been observed, making ineffective those agents. Thus, other therapies more effective and safer than the current ones, are being studied, namely the use plant of extracts enriched in phenolic compounds. In this sense, this manuscript provide an historical perspective of the opportunistic fungal infections, molecular targets of the current anti-Candida drugs, as well as a general description of the active principles present in plants, focused on the antifungal potential of whole plant extracts and isolated phenolic compounds, against Candida species.
The authors are grateful to Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for N. Martins grant (SFRH/BD/87658/2012), L. Barros researcher contract under “Programa Compromisso com Ciência – 2008” and financial support to the research centre CIMO (strategic project PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/2011). This work was also supported by the Programa Operacional, Fatores de competitividade – COMPETE and by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia on the scope of the projects FCT PTDC/SAU-MIC/119069/2010, RECI/EBB-EBI/0179/2012 and PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013. The authors thank the Project “BioHealth - Biotechnology and Bioengineering approaches to improve health quality", Ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000027, co-funded by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), QREN, FEDER.
