Emergence of fluconazole resistance mediated by L321F mutation in the ERG11 gene poses a serious impediment in the candidal treatment process. This leads to the search of novel target proteins to develop newer drugs against fluconazole resistant C. albicans. The present investigation is thus aimed to explore the inhibitory potential of bioactive compounds from A. nilotica against the wild and mutated ERG11 gene of C. albicans.

Homology modelling of the wild and mutated ERG11 target gene was done by Modeller 9.2, with SDM I-mutant form of ERG11 together with SAVES server and Ramachandran plot validation. 2D and 3D structures of the bioactive compounds from A. nilotica were optimized by ACD chemsketch. Molinspirational assessments for the molecular properties of the ligands and their drug likeliness were estimated. In silico inhibitory potential of the selected ligands against wild and mutated ERG11 was done by AutoDock 2.0 and was visualized with Accelrys discovery studio tool.

Apigenin proved to be the best candidate to target mutant ERG11 with a binding energy of −8.33 Kcal/mol followed by catechin with six hydrogen bonds with more drug likeliness. Molinspiration assessments showed zero violations for all the bioactive compounds from A. nilotica and the TPSA scores of the ligands showed the values<140Å towards the best oral bio-availability.

The findings of the study emphasize that kaempferol, apigenin and catechin from A. nilotica seem to possess a promising inhibitory effect against the wild and mutated ERG11 of C. albicans suggesting ERG11 as the best target to combat fluconazole resistant C. albicans with further in vivo validation targeting the same.