Anti-microbial Efficacy of Commercially Available Herbal Dentifrices on Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans

Abstract

Dental caries is a multi-factorial disease .Various chemically derived antimicrobial agents are incorporated to dentifrices to curb cariogenic microorganisms. There has been renewed interest in naturally occurring products in recent years, the side effects encountered with the use of synthetic formulations led to the surge for novel alternatives. To compare the efficacy of herbal dentifrices on oral microflora using antibiotic susceptibility tests. Two strains of microorganisms- Streptococcus mutans, and Candida albicans were taken and incubated in Mutans media, Sabouraud Dextrose agar respectively. Different dilutions (1:5, 1:10, 1:15) of several brands of toothpastes with different compositions were made. Sterile discs were incorporated with equal amounts of prepared toothpaste formulations. Then these discs were placed equidistant to each other followed by plates were incubated for 24 hours. Zone of inhibition is found to be higher in Ayush (30 mm), followed by Dant kanti, Colgate vedshakti, Meswak, Dantajeevan and Dabur red showing inhibition zones of 26 mm, 24 mm, 17 mm and 14 mm respectively. Results show that herbal toothpaste formulations were effective in controlling the oral microflora. The antimicrobial properties of the six dentifrices concluded that almost all the commercially available herbal dentifrices had antimicrobial activity to some extent.

Efficacy of Antimicrobial Agents in Dentifrices: A Systematic Review

“…In general, most antimicrobial agents were able to reduce the amount of S. mutans , but with great variations in their effectiveness. The largest diameter of the inhibition zones for this microorganism were 5.12 mm, 22 mm, 30 mm and 44.6 mm in the studies of Thounaojam et al [ 39 ], Leite et al [ 38 ], Babu et al [ 32 ] and Evans et al [ 22 ], respectively. The same was observed for S. aureus , where the largest diameter of the inhibition zones were 7 mm, 16.5 mm, 29.67 mm and 49 mm in the studies of Shaheena et al [ 28 ], Leite et al [ 38 ], Anushree et al [ 37 ] and Ali et al [ 12 ], respectively.…”

“…All selected articles evaluated the efficacy of different antimicrobial agents present in dentifrice formulations. Ten authors [ 9 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ] evaluated dentifrices with chemical antimicrobial agents, nine authors [ 1 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ] evaluated dentifrices with herbal antimicrobial agents and twenty authors [ 2 , 6 , 11 , 12 , 18 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ] evaluated both chemical and herbal agents.…”

“…The antimicrobial agent sodium monofluorophosphate was also present in several formulations [ 6 , 18 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 24 , 37 , 38 , 43 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 49 ]. Regarding herbal antimicrobial agents, miswak [ 6 , 32 , 37 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ] and neem [ 37 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ] extracts were the most commonly used. In addition, some authors [ 18 , 21 , 22 , 24 ] reported that sodium lauryl sulfate, usually added to dentifrices due to its detergent properties, is also capable of producing antimicrobial activity.…”

“…Some authors [ 39 , 41 , 45 , 47 , 48 ] demonstrated that certain herbal dentifrice formulations can be as effective as dentifrice formulations with chemical antimicrobial agents. Furthermore, in five studies [ 6 , 32 , 37 , 46 , 47 ] which evaluated the antimicrobial action of dentifrices in different dilutions, it was observed that the diameter of the inhibition zones decreased with increasing dentifrice dilution.…”

“…Another criterion that showed a higher risk of bias was “Was appropriate statistical analysis used?” This result is justified by the absence of the statistical methods used [ 19 , 20 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 35 , 40 , 45 ]. Finally, some studies [ 20 , 22 , 26 , 31 , 32 , 43 , 46 ] had a high risk of bias for the criterion “Was there a control group?” because they had no control group, but rather just compared groups. Because the studies showed heterogeneity in antimicrobial agents, dentifrices used and microorganisms evaluated, statistical analysis or meta-analysis was not possible.…”