Evaluating the antimicrobial activity of commercially available herbal toothpastes on microorganisms associated with diabetes mellitus.

Aim: The present study was conducted to evaluate the effcacy of commercially available herbal toothpastes against the different periodontopathogens.

Materials And Methods: Six herbal toothpastes that were commonly commercially available were included in the study. Colgate herbal, Babool, Meswak, Neem active, Dabur red toothpastes were tested for the study whereas sterile normal saline was used as control. Antimicrobial effcacies of dentifrices were evaluated against Streptococcus mutans and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans. The antimicrobial properties of dentifrices were tested by measuring the maximum zone of inhibition at 24 hours on the Mueller Hinton Agar media inoculated with microbial strain using disk diffusion method. Each dentifrice was tested at 100% concentration (full strength).

Results: The study showed that all dentifrices selected for the study were effective against the entire test organism but to varying degree. Neem active tooth paste gave a reading of 25.4 mm as the zone of inhibition which was highest amongst all of the test dentifrices. Colgate Herbal and Meswak dentifrices recorded a larger maximum zone of inhibition, measuring 23 and 22.6 mm respectively, compared to other toothpastes. All other dentifrices showed the zone of inhibition to be between 17 and 19 mm respectively.

Conclusion: The antibacterial properties of six dentifrices were studied in vitro and concluded that almost all of the dentifrices available commercially had antibacterial properties to some extent to beneft dental health or antiplaque action.