Study of the chemical profile and anti-fungal activity against Candida auris of Cinnamomum cassia essential oil and of its nano-formulations based on Polycaprolactone

Background: Candida auris represents an emerging pathogen that results in nosocomial infections and is considered a serious global health problem. The aim of this work was to evaluate the in vitro antifungal efficacy of Cinnamomum cassia essential oil (CC-EO) pure or formulated in polycaprolactone (PCL) nanoparticles against ten clinical strains of C. auris. Methods: nanoparticles of PCL were produced using CC-EO (nano-CC-EO) and cinnamaldehyde (CIN) through the nanopreCitation: Rosato, R.; Napoli, E.; Granata, G.; Di Vito, M.; Garzoli, S.; Geraci, C.; Rizzo, S.; Torelli, R.; Sanguinetti, M.; Bugli, F. Study of the Chemical Profile and Anti-Fungal Activity against Candida auris of Cinnamomum cassia Essential Oil and of Its Nano-Formulations Based on Polycaprolactone. Plants 2023, 12, 358. https://doi.org/10.3390/ plants12020358 Academic Editor: Adeyemi Oladapo Aremu Received: 20 December 2022 Revised: 10 January 2023 Accepted: 11 January 2023 Published: 12 January 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). cipitation method. The chemical profile of both CC-EO and nano-CC-EO was evaluated using SPME sampling followed by GC-MS analysis. Micro-broth dilution tests were performed to evaluate both fungistatic and fungicidal effectiveness of CC-EO and CIN, pure and nano-formulated. Furthermore, checkerboard tests to evaluate the synergistic action of CC-EO or nano-CC-EO with micafungin or fluconazole were conducted. Finally, the biofilm disrupting activity of both formulations was evaluated. Results: GC-MS analysis shows a different composition between CC-EO and nano-CC-EO. Moreover, the microbiological analyses do not show any variation in antifungal effectiveness either towards the planktonic form (MICCC-EO = 0.01 0.01 and MICnano-CC-EO = 0.02 0.01) or the biofilm form. No synergistic activity with the antifungal drugs tested was found. Conclusions: both CC-EO and nano-CC-EO show the same antimicrobial effectiveness and are potential assets in the fight against C. auris.