A shrub that people around the Mediterranean have long used on wounds and irritated skin has now been tested in a laboratory. Researchers report that an extract of the plant killed several fungi that cause common skin infections. The result is early, but it is a good example of how scientists check traditional remedies against modern evidence.
What the study found
According to a release from Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) in Spain, a polyphenol-rich extract of Cistus salviifolius, a Mediterranean rockrose, showed fungicidal activity against several dermatophytes. Dermatophytes are the fungi behind superficial infections of the skin, hair and nails, including various forms of ringworm. The work was done with colleagues at the University of Namur in Belgium and the University of Coimbra in Portugal. It was published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology. The paper was first posted online at the end of July, and the university’s findings began circulating more widely in late September. The Johns Hopkins News-Letter included it in its science roundup on 5 October.
Two fungi were especially sensitive to the extract. One was Trichophyton rubrum, which the researchers describe as one of the main causes of fungal skin infections. The other was Microsporum canis, which can pass from animals to people.
What the extract is made of
The team prepared the extract from plants grown in controlled gardens at UMH. Chemical analysis showed it was made up mainly of polyphenols. These plant compounds include tannins and flavonoids. The study’s abstract also reports strong antioxidant activity. It says the extract significantly inhibited enzymes linked to skin breakdown: collagenase, elastase and hyaluronidase.
How it seems to work
The researchers used transmission electron microscopy to look at treated fungal cells. According to the reports, the images showed extensive internal damage. This included vacuolization, detachment of the cell membrane and disorganised cell contents. Some cells also appeared to have lost their contents or ruptured.
“We observed that the fungus stops growing and that its cells sustain substantial damage,” said Francisco Javier Álvarez Martínez, the study’s first author. The authors suggest that the extract may disrupt several cellular processes at once. They stress that it is not yet known which compounds are responsible.
A test on a human skin model
The team also used a reconstructed human epidermis model, which is lab-grown skin tissue. In this model, the extract reduced the fungal load and the extent to which the fungus invaded the tissue. The researchers say this supports further work on controlled topical products such as creams or hydrogels.
Limits of the findings
- Not tested in people. A lab-grown tissue model is not a clinical trial. Álvarez Martínez said the result is important but not enough to show the extract is safe as a human treatment.
- Not a call for home use. According to News-Medical’s account of the release, the results do not support putting the plant directly on the skin. They support research into formulations whose composition and behaviour are known.
- Narrow range. The extract showed no antifungal activity against yeasts such as Candida albicans at the concentrations tested.
- Active ingredients unknown. The compounds that drive the effect have not been identified.
Why it matters
Ringworm and similar infections are common and are usually treated with topical or oral antifungal drugs. The study does not claim to replace those. Its value is that it gives experimental backing to a long-standing folk use and points to a possible source of new antifungal ingredients. In the abstract, the authors say the findings provide pharmacological support for the traditional use of the plant in skin infections.
Vicente Micol Molina, a researcher at UMH’s Institute for Research in Biotechnology and Health, said traditional medicine offers clues. He added that scientists still have to establish experimentally what lies behind them and under what conditions they might be useful.
What comes next
The next steps the authors point to are identifying the active compounds, working out the mechanisms, and developing standardised topical formulations. Safety and effectiveness would then have to be tested in animals and in people before any product could be considered. Many promising plant extracts do not get past those stages, so the finding should be read as a lead and not as a new treatment.