In vitro Control of Oral Thrush Causal Organisms Using Medicinal Plants Extracts

Abstract

Oral hygiene is important to the generality of the human healthcare system. For this, the antifungal activities of the aqueous and ethanol extracts of four medicinal plants of Jatropha curcas (stem), Eucaluptus golbulus (leaves), Vernonia amygdalina (stem) and Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides (root) were carried out in vitro against three species of Candida associated with oral thrush namely C. albicans, C. glabrata, C. tropicalis using the disc diffusion agar assay. The zones of inhibition varied with the test organisms as well as the extracts. The ethanolic extract of Jatropha curcas showed the highest zone of inhibition of 10.88 ± 0.22 mm against C. albicans while the least zone of inhibition (6.13 ± 0.13 mm) was exhibited by the ethanol extract of Z. zanthoxyloides on C. glabrata. The preliminary phytochemical screening showed the presence of tannin, saponin, alkaloids, flavonoids and reducing sugar in all plant samples. This study can be further used as a foundation for the screening of phytochemical constituents by pharmaceuticals for the control and eradication of oral thrush.