Report: Synergism of sodium bicarbonate and baicalin against clinical Candida albicans isolates via broth microdilution method and checkerboard assay.

Invasive fungal infections caused by Candida albicans constitute a prevalent worldwide health problem. Due to limited antifungal agents available, more efforts have been made towards searching the novel anti-candida drugs with low cytotoxicity. The present study was aimed to investigate the antifungal activities of baicalin and/or sodium bicarbonate (SB) against 29 C. albicans isolates including 27 clinical ones. By using broth microdilution method and checkerboard assay, it was observed that the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of baicalin and SB alone were > 2048 μg/mL, and those of baicalin and SB in combination decreased 16-32 folds with fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI) in a range of 0.094-0.375. The results presented the strong synergism between SB and baicalin in 27 clinical C. albicans isolates and provided an alternative choice against C. albicans.