Abstract
Econazole nitrate and its related compounds were examined for activity in vitro against Candida albicans, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Staphylococcus aureus by using the agar dilution technique. Econazole nitrate, its optical isomers and econazole base showed virtually the same antifungal activity. Of 15 econazole-related compounds, including chemical intermediates and metabolites, only 2, 4-dichloro-2-chloroacetophenone was active against those fungal strains.
Econazole was also compared with mionnazole and clotrimazole with regard to activity in vitro against 46 strains of medically important fungi, including yeast-like fungi, dermatophytes and several other filamentous fungi. Data on minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum fungi cidal concentration revealed that there was no qualitative difference in antifungal property against yeast-like fungi among the three imidazole drugs. Econazole and miconazole showed a slightly stronger fungicidal activity against C. albicans than clotrimazole.
Of the three imidazoles, econazole showed the strongest activity against dermatophytes and other filamentous fungi.
In shaking cultures of C. albicans and T. rubrum, a decrease in number of viable fungi was induced more rapidly and more remarkably by econazole or miconazole than by clotrimazole.
