The antifungal activity of cerumen in healthy people referred to Shahid Beheshti Hospital of Babol, Iran

Ear wax is the combination of different producing gland secretions. According to controversial ideas about the antifungal effects of ear cerumen and lack of any research around this matter in Iran, the present study performed on antifungal activity of cerumen from healthy people referred to Beheshti Hospital, Babol on some fungi. This experimental study was carried out on the 30 ear cerumen samples of healthy people referred to the Shahid Beheshti Hospital of Babol, Iran. The experiment was conducted on 4 type of fungi; Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans (clinical isolate) and standard Candida albicans (PTCC5027) by using of 10% cerumen solution in glycerol buffer, in sterile ELISA micro plate accompanying positive and negative controls (as duplicates); then the antifungal activities of cerumen as minimum fungicidal concentration and minimum inhibitory concentration 90% and 50% on fungi, were obtained. The average ages of the subjects were between 2-85 years. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC50) observed in 70.83%. The most antifungal effect (MIC50) observed on Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus niger (each 26 samples) and least effect observed on the species of Candida albicans (16 samples) (P = 0.003). The Aspergillus niger was more sensitive to cerumen than others. Regarding to the results, cerumen has antifungal effect on tested fungi.