The essential oil and the aqueous, hexane and methanolic fractions from Hyptis ovalifolia leaves were evaluated for their antifungal activity in vitro against 60 strains of dermatophytes: 10 strains of Microsporum canis, 10 of M. gypseum, 20 of Trichophyton rubrum and 20 of T. mentagrophytes. The extracts inhibited growth of the dermatophytes tested at different concentrations. The most biologically active was the essential oil from the leaves which inhibited 57 isolates (95%) at a concentration of £ 500 µg/ml.

Sixty clinical isolates of Cryptococcus neoformans from AIDS from Goiânia, state of Goiás, Brazil, were characterized according to varieties, serotypes and tested for antifungal susceptibility. To differentiate the two varieties was used L-canavanine-glycine-bromothymol blue medium and to separate the serotypes was used slide agglutination test with Crypto Check Iatron. The Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of fluconazole, itraconazole, and amphotericin B were determined by the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards macrodilution method. Our results identified 56 isolates as C. neoformans var. neoformans serotype A and 4 isolates as C. neoformans var. gattii serotype B. MIC values for C. neoformans var. gattii were higher than C. neoformans var. neoformans. We verified that none isolate was resistant to itraconazole and to amphotericin B, but one C. neoformans var. neoformans and three C. neoformans var. gattii isolates were resistant to fluconazole. The presence of C. neoformans var. gattii fluconazole resistant indicates the importance of determining not only the variety of C. neoformans infecting the patients but also measuring the MIC of the isolate in order to properly orient treatment.