In vitro Study of the Antimicrobial Effects of Phenolic Extract of the Salvadora persica (Miswak) on the Growth of Certain Microorganisms Responsible for Oral Infections

Abstract

Background and Objective:Salvadora persica, commonly known as the miswak tree or the toothbrush tree is thought to contain a no. of phenolic compds. The objective of this study is to identify these phenolic compds. and to evaluate their antimicrobial effects on the growth of some germs implicated in certain oral infections. Materials and Methods: Phenolic ethanol exts. were obtained by vacuum evapn. of hydroalcoholic solns. after extn. from varying amts. of crushed root, bark and stem of the test plant. The resulting pure exts. were then dild. with sterile distd. water at different increasing ratio from 0-100%. The phenolic compds. were analyzed by the HPLC method. The antimicrobial effects of these exts. were tested on many ref. germs. The antimicrobial activity was tested by monitoring the growth of the germs in specific media while using disk diffusion assays. The Min. Inhibitory Concn. (MIC) and Min. Fungicidal Concn. (MFC) of the plant exts. were detd. according to the micro broth diln. technique. Data were statistically analyzed by ANOVA and the Newman-Keuls test. Results: The qual. anal. revealed that chlorogenic acid, catechin and epicatechin emerged as major phenolic compds. from root and stem of Salvadora persica, while bark exts. were rather rich in caffeine, theobromine and trigonelline. The MIC and MFC of Candida albicans were obtained with 40% phenolic exts. of the stem. The data seems to indicate that stem exts. caused a fungicidal action against Candida albicans. The growth of Streptococcus mutans was not affected by the different solns. of phenolic exts. However, other bacteria belonging to Streptococcus genus such as Streptococcus mitis and Streptococcus faecalis and those belonging to Staphylococcus genus including Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis and the Lactobacillus casei were completely inhibited with the exts. prepd. at 7.5 g of vegetal matter. Conclusion: The antimicrobial effects of phenolic exts. of miswak coming out of this study were close to those described in the study by most researchers. These exts. could be used as a medicament to prevent and to cure oral diseases in Algeria. [on SciFinder(R)]