the antifungal and cancer cell growth inhibitory activities of 1 -- 2 - nitro - ethylene were examined . tmpn was fungicidal for the majority of 132 reference strains and clinical isolates tested , including those resistant to fluconazole , ketoconazole , amphotericin b or flucytosine . minimum fungicidal concentration / minimum inhibitory concentration ratios were ≦ 2 for 96 % of cryptococcus neoformans clinical isolates and 71 % of candida albicans clinical isolates . tmpn was fungicidal for a variety of other basidiomycetes , endomycetes and hyphomycetes , and its activity was unaffected by alterations in media ph . tmpn was slightly cytotoxic for murine and human cancer cell lines , and weakly inhibited mammalian tubulin polymerization . tmpn may also be used as a biochemical probe for tubulin and fungal dimorphism studies .