Evaluation of inhibitory effects of citric and tartaric acids and their combination on the growth of Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida albicans, and Malassezia furfur

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of citric and tartaric acids and their combination on the growth inhibition of some important pathogenic fungi in vitro. Trichophyton mentagrophytes var. mentagrophytes, Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus, and Malassezia furfur were cultured into specific media, and subsequently, fungal conidia were harvested from the medium surface and counted by hemacytometer method. The antifungal susceptibility test of citric and tartaric acids and their combination against fungi were assayed by broth macrodilution technique. The results demonstrated that citric acid had more fungistatic and fungicidal activities than those of tartaric acid against all pathogenic fungi tested, and its effect on filamentous fungi was higher than that on the yeasts. Antifungal activity of the acid combination was similar to citric acid but higher than tartaric acid alone. Further research is needed to assess the efficacy of citric and tartaric acids as inhibitors of fungal growth in clinical trials, especially in treatment of patients with fungal infections.