In this report, we describe the cases recovering from oral candidosis by treatment with oral ointment containing antifungal naphthoquinone derivatives. The patients bearing persistent colonization with Candida genera were treated with our domestic oral ointment, three times a day for two weeks or for one month. During the observation period, the oral candidosis was gradually vanished at 3 days after the treatment and disappeared completely at the end of the period. This ointment contains naphthoquinone derivatives, which are constituents of Shikon (root of Lithospermum erythrorhizon), having been investigated against several fungal pathogens. When the biological activity of these compounds was tested against fungi, a wide range of sensitivity was recorded. With the determination of these naphthoquinones by HPLC, this ointment contains about 10 to 100-folds of each effective concentration.
This observation demonstrates that the oral ointment containing some antifungal naphthoquinone derivatives would useful for the patients bearing serious oral candidosis.