J. KARUNYAL SAMUEL, V. RAFEE VIOLA, V. HEPSIBAH SUMATHI AND B. SRIVIDHYA
Abstract
The dandruff causing organism, Malassezta fiirfur was isolated from the scalp scrapings of ten different women respondents belonging to the age group of 20-25 years from a local institution in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. The organism was identified based on the clinical symptoms, colony morphology and the microscopic characteristics (specific budding) as Malassezia furfiir. Growth pattern of the isolated organism was investigated following the growth curve and was found to be sigmoid. Factors such as temperature and pH influenced the growth of the organism. Aqueous bulb extract ofAllium sativum was used for the present study after screening ten different plant species, because only this showed antidandruff activity. When various concentration of the aqueous extract ofAllium sativum was used for In vitro antidandruff studies, the results indicate that the activity is concentration dependent and pH dependent.