Objective: This systematic review aims to assess and summarize studies investigating the antifungal activity of Libyan medicinal plants, with emphasis on Candida albicans and other clinical relevance fungal species.
Materials and Methods: Electronic researches were conducted in PubMed, Dimensions and OpenAlex, supplemented with Libyan journals and Google Scholar to identify studies published between 1 January 2010 and 26 August 2025, only original in vitro studies assessing the antifungal activity of Libyan plants and those meeting the predefined inclusion criteria were selected. This review followed the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, study quality was assessed using a modified QUIN tool, and the protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD420251121497).
Results: A total of 45 articles were included with 51plant species evaluated. Several plants, particularly, Malva parviflora, Satureja thymbra L, Arbutus pavarii and Phragmites australis exhibited strong inhibitory activity against the most commonly targeted pathogen C. albicans. Additionally, several species tested against Aspergillus species including Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus showed variable inhibition. The main active components identified were phenolic compounds such as flavonoids (especially catechin), thymol, tannins, saponins and terpenoids. The quality assessment indicated an overall acceptable methodological quality for most included studies.
Conclusion: This review highlights the potential of Libyan plants as a promising source of antifungal agents. Based on identified research gaps, this review recommends more innovative in vitro and in vivo studies, as well as elucidation of the action of the active compounds against fungi and evaluation their cytotoxicity.