Antidermatophyte Activity of Ethanol Extract and Stability of Creams Formulated from Cassia alata Linn

There are scientific reports of medicinal plants having curative properties. These properties may be due to the presence of various phytochemicals in the plants. Cassia alata is a specie in the Fabaceae family. The purpose of this study is to determine the antidermatophyte activity of the extract, formulate a cream with the extract and determine the stability of the cream by measuring the pH, Free-thaw test, Centrifugation and sensitivity to light. We also subjected the formulated cream to temperature variation test at -10, 4, 30, 37 and 45o C. The percentage yield was 8.5%. The extract contain alkaloid (4.24±0.24%), saponin(1.35±0.39%), tannin (0.45±0.29%) and flavonoid (2.42±0.32%) respectively. The antifungal test results showed the activity against the dermatophytes to be in the increasing order M.furfur (12± 0.2 mm) < Microsporum audounii (12±0.4 mm) < Trichophyton mentagrophtes (14±0.2mm) < Epidermophyton floccosum (16±0.2 mm).Temperature stability and Centrifuge testing indicated that the formulations were stable. Light testing indicated no change in the colour of the cream. Our study showed that the plant has high potential as an anti-dermatophyte when formulated as a cream for topical use. The stability of the cream formulations indicated that it can be used for the management of dermatophytosis.