Eucalyptus Citriodora - Antifungal

The latest issue of the Intl. Journal of Essential Oil Therapeutics arrived earlier this week. I sometimes get discouraged, because all too often the research articles printed have to do with rare and exotic oils that are not commercially available. This issue, though, has an interesting article about Euc. Citriodora (Lemon Eucalyptus.)

I've always known that Euc. Citriodora was a strong anti-fungal agent, and recommended it for this purpose. A research article shows that Euc. Citriodora is not only powerful against most "conventional" fungi, but it is even more powerful when used (in the laboratory!) against the newer drug resistant mutants of Candida.

Now, if the authors had not suggested that isolating "the active phytoceuticals from the whole oil may provide a valuable antimicrobial agent for counteracting fungal and drug resistant infections" I'd have been happier. I am not a chemist, but it seems to me that if big pharma isolates the one (or more) phytochemicals that give Euc. Citriodora its powerful anti-fungal effect, the possibility of the drug resistant strains becoming resistant to this valuable natural anti-fungal increases.