The potential of using an electronic nose (E-nose) as a rapid technique forscreening the responses of dermatophytes to antifungal agents was studied. Invitro, the 50% and 90% effective concentration (EC) values of five antifungalagents including fungicides and antioxidant mixtures against Trichophyton rubrumand Trichophyton mentagrophytes were obtained by mycelial growth assays. Thequalitative volatile production patterns of the growth responses of these fungito the EC values incorporated into solid media were analysed after 96-120hincubation at 25°C using headspace analyses using five replicates per treatment.Overall, results, using principal components analysis and cluster analysis,demonstrated that it was possible to differentiate between various treatmentswithin 96-120h of growth. The EC50 values were discriminated from the controlswhile the EC90 concentration treatments were often grouped with the agar blanksbecause of very slow growth. This study showed that potential exists for usingqualitative volatile patterns as a rapid screening method for antifungal agentsagainst micro-organisms. This approach could significantly improve andfacilitate the monitoring of antimicrobial drug activities and infection controlprogrammes and perhaps also for monitoring of drug resistance buildup inmicrobial populations
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