Antifungal Property of Radish (Raphanus Sativus) Extract: Potential Cure for Athlete's Foot

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Due to the Philippines’ on-going problem with heavy flooding as well as the skin diseases that they cause, the researcher wanted to find out if radish (R. Sativus) can be a possible remedy that can inhibit one of the most prevalent skin diseases caused by flood, the athlete's foot (T. Mentagrophytes). Though there have been studies proving that radish extract can inhibit some types of fungi, there was still no study proving that it could also inhibit athlete's foot. Success in this study can provide a cheap alternative in curing the said disease.

METHODS

The main ingredient was collected, extracted, and distilled. The method used in testing the effectiveness was disk diffusion. Testing was conducted to determine whether the Radish extract is a good substitute to expensive anti-fungal treatment available in pharmacies and if it can inhibit the growth of T. mentagrophytes, a fungus that can cause athlete's foot. The radish extract and commercially available product were tested on a disc with T. Mentagrophytes for 7 days.

RESULTS

The data and results were translated and they showed that the radish extract inhibits delayed the growth of T. mentagrophytes around the disk and the commercial product showed unclear zone at all. The anti-fungal property of the radish was not effective at all in inhibiting the growth of T.mentagrophytes. Therefore, the result showed that there was an error in experimenting or otherwise, conducting the testing.

DISCUSSIONS

The research study showed that Radish inhibits delayed growth of T. mentagrophytes. The researchers suggest that in distilling the extract, one should follow the correct guidelines and instructions so that the experiment will not come up with less effectivity. The researcher believes that using another fungus that causes Athlete's foot should also be tried for testing. The researcher suggests that the production of an ointment out of radish extract can help develop this study. Also, conducting a further study about the other medicinal properties of radish extract is recommended.